


When the Moon Hits Your Eye Like a Big Pizza Pie (That’s Amore)

by Mimiwritesfic



Series: Maviolink Chronicles [1]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Bad Matchmaking, Crack Treated Seriously, F/M, Fluff, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Inspired by Discord, Just realized that four doesn’t actually talk in the first chapter I forgot my boy, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), M/M, Marin is here because i said so, Soft Legend (Linked Universe), Surprise Angst, Technically a sick fic? I guess?, There’s background wild/Sidon and wild/flora but it’s only mentioned so no ship tags, in which legend is a complete idiot, its the lu boys did you expect them to be good at this? No, this is y’all’s fault, warriors and his flowcharts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:07:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 33,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24455665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mimiwritesfic/pseuds/Mimiwritesfic
Summary: When a quick switch to Legend’s Hyrule deposits the heroes right at the doorstep of his house, the expectation was to stay for a day at most—and then, of course, a bad allergic reaction to a plant throws all travel plans out the window. How else are they supposed to get entertainment besides trying to get Legend to realize that he is, in fact, being flirted with by both Marin and Ravio?(Or: the lu discord had a little too much fun coming up with scenarios for oblivious legend and i got sucked in. Enjoy)
Relationships: Four (Linked Universe) & Shadow Link, Legend (Linked Universe)/Marin (Legend of Zelda), Legend (Linked Universe)/Ravio (Legend of Zelda)
Series: Maviolink Chronicles [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1922551
Comments: 124
Kudos: 501





	1. Planning (and Plants)

Ravio, contrary to the  _ insulting _ rumors that he was a scammer who thrived on wheedling every last rupee out of everyone he encountered, did his best to run a fair shop. No surprises, no hidden fees that couldn’t be reasonably expected, and so on—one would think that the universe would then do the same courtesy for him and avoid tossing any curveballs. 

One would be wrong. 

Ravio could sense magic perfectly well, and identify it with almost no error. He knew what sorts of magic usually popped up around his shop, and the magic coming from the humming portal in the middle of Link’s living room was  _ not _ meant to be there. 

“If Link had stayed just a bit longer, then  _ he _ would be the one who got to poke that thing,” said Ravio, thinking out loud to Sheerow as he sometimes did. The little bird deigned to respond, too busy hiding underneath his hood (Ravio couldn’t say much, as he was hiding behind an armchair). “Now  _ I’ve _ got to do it. A sad, dangerous life for me without Mr. Hero, huh?”

But before Ravio could poke the portal with the sword clutched in his fist, it buzzed louder than before. It seemed to be humming some sort of song—a lullaby? It sounded familiar, if anything. Link hummed it sometimes, when he thought no one was listening…

Then the humming abruptly stopped and the portal burst into light, dropping something heavy onto the floor and temporarily blinding Ravio. 

“Yow!” Ravio rubbed his eyes, dropping his sword in the process. When all the spots had finally cleared from his vision, he checked the floor to see what the portal had decided to drop on the rug.

A  _ young woman. _ Of all things, a young woman. She groaned and pushed herself into a sitting position on the floor, tugging bright red hair out of her eyes as she did so. She caught sight of Ravio and stared. 

“How come you’re hiding behind an armchair?” she asked. 

“How come you’re dropping out of portals uninvited?” said Ravio, vaguely insulted. 

She winced and stood, brushing off her blue dress. “I guess that’s fair. I meant to come out somewhere else…”

“Okay, I’ll bite,” said Ravio, tentatively leaving the shelter of the armchair. “Where? I can help you leave—unless, of course, you feel like buying something.”

“Do you know anyone named Link?” she asked. “I was supposed to go straight to him. Does he live here?” 

Ravio blinked. “What a coincidence! He does  _ own the building, _ though he hasn’t done much ‘living here’ for the past couple months or so. You’ve come out in the right spot, just not the right time.”

She outright wilted, which made Ravio feel more than a little bit bad. “Oh. Will he be back soon?”

“I don’t know. He usually comes back here when he gets the chance, though-“

“Really?” The girl’s entire demeanor changed from dejected to delighted in half a second. “Could I wait here for him?”

Ravio hesitated. On the one hand, convincing Link to let just  _ him _ stay had taken time. A stranger? Not a chance. 

_ On the other hand, she did say she knows him. I can’t very well kick out a friend of Mr. Hero’s.  _

“You know what?” Ravio decided. “The more the merrier. I can make tea! What’s your name? I’m Ravio, the one and only!”

“I’m Marin,” she said, smiling sweetly. “It’s nice to meet you.”

—

“...and then he told me that the rooster had come back to life! All because of a song!”

“Doesn’t sound too strange to me,” said Ravio, “for someone from a  _ dream _ island, anyway!”

“Oh, it wasn’t that the rooster came back to life,” explained Marin, taking another sip of tea, “it’s that he had  _ just learned _ how to use an ocarina! I don’t know how he was so good at it already!”

“That’s Mr. Hero for you,” said Ravio, snickering. “Of  _ course _ he figured it out, he’s the hero. He’s got to master everything.”

“How did you two meet, by the way?”

“I found him passed out in a temple and dragged him back here,” said Ravio fondly. “And now he’s my best client! Attitude aside.”

Marin laughed. “You too? He washed up on the beach of my home island. I took him back to my house myself.”

“You’re not serious!” Ravio had to put his teacup down before he dropped it laughing. “That must be how he makes friends! You should see the people he came in here with about a week ago—his family, apparently. He probably fainted on them too.”

“Oh dear,” giggled Marin. “You’re probably right. I didn’t know he had family, though.”

“They’re very strange characters,” said Ravio. ”Of course, so am I! Tell you what—you can stay until Link comes back. It sounds like he’ll want to see you again.”

“Thank you. I’ve missed him dearly,” said Marin. She had a starry sort of look in her eye, almost like… oh. 

“Say, were you two…” Ravio hesitated to say it. “Close?”

Marin instantly turned the color of her hair. “N-no! I mean, we made friends fairly quickly, but—no. Not like that. No.”

Ravio snorted _. _ “Even  _ I  _ can hide it better than that!”

Then he realized what had just left his mouth and choked on tea. Dead silence settled over the table. 

“Oh,” said Marin quietly. “You two are…?”

“Er, no, not quite,” stammered Ravio. ”I just said that I hide it, didn’t I?”

More awkward silence. Ravio was starting to wonder just where his invisibility-granting items were—surely he had some?—when Marin cleared her throat. 

“So… what do  _ we _ do, then?” she said, tentatively setting her teacup down. 

“Duel?”

“What? No!”

Ravio shrugged. “I was kidding—mostly. I mean… what kind of solutions even  _ are _ there? You seem too nice to have for a rival.”

Marin pursed her lips, thinking. “I mean, assuming he even feels the same way about either of us… or both. Hm. That’s it!”

“What’s it?”

“He’s got two hands, doesn’t he?” said Marin expectantly. 

“Last I checked, yes,” said Ravio, who hadn’t quite clicked with what she said yet. “Wait—oh! Good point!”

“Friends?” Marin held out her hand across the table. 

“Friends,” agreed Ravio, shaking it enthusiastically. “Especially if you choose to support the business while you stay, you know.”

“Oh, alright, but as a business  _ partner. _ I’m not someone you can con.”

Ravio stared at her, astonished. “Well! I think we’ll get along just fine.”

“I was mostly kidding,” said Marin thoughtfully, “but… we  _ could _ team up in another way.”

“I’m hearing a business proposal.”

“In a way. You could be my wingman, and I could be your wing—er—wingwoman. Deal?”

Ravio thought about it briefly. “Deal!”

—

“If any of you even  _ think _ about messing with my stuff, I’m letting you stay cursed this time,” threatened Legend, throwing a pointed glare at Wild before they got to his front door. 

“I didn’t even touch that ring! It touched me!”

Time cleared his throat, stopping further argument before it could begin. 

“Yeah, fine, I’ll help anyone who gets cursed,” said Legend, unlocking the door. “But-“

He opened the door and immediately stopped talking, glaring at the mess. Items with price tags had taken over his entire living room like some bizarre spiderweb, completely obscuring Legend’s former decorations and making it look like a traveling caravan had exploded.

“Looks like your roommate beat us to messing with your stuff,” quipped Twilight, who considered the mess to be in line with Legend’s typical organization. 

“I’m going to kill him,” said Legend, stepping inside. “Be right back. Don’t do anything!”

He disappeared inside, closing the door and leaving his fellow heroes in the lawn. They all glanced at each other awkwardly. 

“Should we follow him?” said Sky eventually. “I feel like letting Legend kill his roommate goes against the Hero’s Spirit.”

“He wouldn’t actually-“ Warriors began, but he was cut off by an irate shout from inside the house. 

“MY HOUSE IS NOT AN EXTRADIMENSIONAL HOTEL, RAVIO!”

“Maybe just a few of us,” said Time tactfully. “Wild, Warriors, with me. Pup, watch the others.”

Warriors had a hand on his sword when they entered and was the first to stick his head into the other room—this one more of a normal-looking living room, with the exception of the two young men having a loud conversation in the middle of it. 

“Mr. Hero, hold on, you’ll want to see who I let stay before getting mad!” Ravio protested, waving his hands about. “She said she knows you!”

Legend squinted at him skeptically, not noticing the entrance of the other heroes. “You do know what Zelda looks like, right? Because I don’t know that many-“

“It’s not the queen,” Ravio huffed, placing his hands squarely on his hips. “Our guest went to market, but it’s about time for her to be back, so you can decide whether or not I should raise prices on you for emotional damages then.”

“Excuse me?”

“You came in and started yelling at me without even saying hello!” Ravio flopped onto the closest couch, flinging an arm over his eyes. “How am I to  _ cope?” _

Legend’s eye started twitching—but so was the edge of his mouth. “Ravio, I swear-“

Time took that moment to check his surroundings and found that Wild had managed to slip away and investigate the shop. “Wild, don’t touch that! Legend, just how cursed is that necklace?”

“This isn’t over,” said Legend to Ravio, who remained flopped on the couch and grinned at him. “Hey, Captain, tell the others to come on in before they mess up my lawn. I’m going to stop Wild getting himself lit on fire again.”

Warriors stuck his head outside and (reluctantly) followed Legend’s orders, ushering the others in while keeping a careful eye on Wind and Hyrule. He spotted someone else walking up the path behind them—someone with red hair in a braid and a blue dress, carrying a basket with flowers trailing from it. 

“There’s… an extra,” he said to Legend, who had returned dragging Wild by the collar. “Must be your new houseguest.”

“ _ Not _ my guest, Ravio’s,” said Legend. He suddenly snapped his fingers and turned to his friend. ”Which reminds me—you never told me her name.”

“Oh, I did forget to do that, didn’t I?” Ravio had gotten over his mock-fainting spell. Warriors held the door open for the new arrival as he spoke. “Her name is-“

_ “Marin?” _

Legend’s voice had never sounded so choked before—it was like he’d swallowed glass before seeing the newcomer step through the door. The young woman stopped dead in the threshold, staring right back at him with her jaw slightly open. 

The tension could have been sliced with a knife. 

“Should we leave…?” said Sky after a long moment. 

“I have snacks?” said Ravio tentatively, inching towards a nearby door which likely lead to the kitchen. 

“Yeah, snacks, let’s go-“ said Warriors, snagging Wind in his hurry to get away. 

“But I want to—oof!” Wild’s protests were cut off by Time borrowing Legend’s tactics of moving him. 

“Get moving. It’s not our business,” said Time sternly, shepherding everyone out and leaving Legend alone with Marin. 

It was a long moment before either of them spoke. 

“You’re real,” said Legend numbly, stepping closer in a daze. “You’re… you’re here—how?”

“The Wind Fish fell asleep again,” said Marin, setting her basket down carefully. “I don’t know how long it was after you left… but I remembered everything. I asked him to send me to you.”

“I’m so sorry I left-“

“No, don’t be! You weren’t  _ of _ that world, Link,” said Marin hurriedly, reaching forward to take hold of his shoulders. ”If that dream had remained where it was, the consequences—well, the owl didn’t explain much, but I know it would have been bad. I understand why you had to leave.”

“I thought…” Legend reached up and Marin took his hands, squeezing them reassuringly. 

“I know,” she said, smiling. “I’m so glad to see you again, Link.”

In the kitchen, most of the Links (and Ravio) were eating and politely pretending to not know what was going on in the living room. Not all of them were quite that polite.

“Do you think they’re dating?” hissed Wind with his ear pressed to the wall, down a hallway just out of sight of the other Links. 

Warriors shushed him, cupping a hand around his ear to try and hear better. 

It was Twilight who found the hallway and walked over, sighing. “Listening through the wall isn’t…“

Warriors raised an eyebrow at him. 

“Fine. What are they saying?”

“I don’t know!  _ Someone’s _ talking!” hissed Warriors. 

Wind elbowed him. “So’s Legend! Quiet!”

“I never forgot about the island,” said Legend softly. 

“That’s exactly what helped me come back.”

“Good. I’m glad. I—I don’t know what to say,” said Legend. “I thought for  _ sure _ you were gone forever—wait, the others?”

Marin sighed. “They’re still on Koholint. I know it’s not likely I’ll see any of them in person again… but I had to come find you.”

“They’re dating. They  _ have _ to be,” said Warriors. Twilight shushed him. 

“You’re the best friend I could ever ask for, Marin. I missed you.”

“WH—” 

Wind shushed Warriors this time, but he wasn’t done. “Friend? Just friend? He  _ can’t _ be serious after what she did to get here-“

“Shh!” said Wind and Twilight simultaneously. 

“I missed you too, Link,” said Marin slowly. “Even if you have an… interesting taste in roommates.”

“Ravio is  _ not _ my roommate, he’s a scammer with horribly overpriced items,” insisted Legend. 

“But you let him stay.”

“I can’t get rid of him!”

“Admit it! You’re a softie who let his friend hang around out of the goodness of his heart,” said Marin teasingly. 

“I will neither confirm nor deny that.”

“For me?” said Marin. “ _ I’m _ friends with him now, you know…”

Behind the wall, all three Links were listening intently. 

Twilight made a face. “If she actually manages to get him to admit something, I swear-“

“Fine, he’s a friend,” admitted Legend. “He’s still annoying!”

“Not  _ too _ annoying, or you’d actually get rid of him.”

Legend sighed. “You’re right.”

Wind’s jaw dropped. “Holy f-“

“Nope, not doing that,” said Twilight, clapping a hand over Wind’s mouth. A moment later, he grimaced. “Don’t lick my hand, I won’t move! You’re worse than Wild.”

“Doesn’t Wild  _ bite?”  _ said Warriors pointedly, forgetting to lower his voice. 

“Yeah, you have a—oh, Hylia.”

Warriors turned to see what Twilight was staring at and saw a disapproving Time come around the corner. Wind wriggled free of Twilight’s hold a moment later and clearly got what he considered a great idea.

“Warriors did it first!” he cried, before darting right past Time to escape. 

“You little—get back here!” 

Time stuck out a hand and stopped Warriors from chasing after the little pirate without a struggle. “Eavesdropping? Really? You know he’d probably shank you.”

“Time, you have  _ no _ idea what we just heard,” argued Warriors. “He’s-“

“I don’t want to hear it. You shouldn’t treat a comrade like that-“

“He’s being more oblivious than Wind is around Tetra,” said Twilight flatly, which gave Time some pause. 

“Even if he’s a wreck, it’s not your business,” he said sternly, despite the slight gleam in his eye. “I won’t tell him, but you should all stop eavesdropping for now. Got it?”

He released Warriors, who nodded slowly and went back into the kitchen. Twilight remained where he was. 

“He had a  _ look _ in his eye,” said Time, exasperated. “Don’t you two team up. I’m already going gray.”

“No promises, Old Man.”

Dinner that night was… odd, to say the least. Warriors kept glancing between Marin and Legend and occasionally shared knowing looks with Twilight. Time kept staring at the wall with a dead tired look in his eye, which heavily confused Wild. Four talked shop with Ravio and pretended not to notice his conversation partner’s occasional glance in Legend’s direction. Hyrule had spotted said glances and was squinting suspiciously at just about everyone at the table. 

Only Sky was actually minding his own business—not that it was unusual for him to do so—but even he ended up involved. He got up to get seconds and caught sight of a bit of paper under a plate of unfamiliar cookies. Dessert, probably, or maybe just something Wild had set aside for later. 

_ I shouldn’t… _

Sky carefully tugged the paper out to read it. 

_ Dear Mr. Hero,  _

_ I went to the trouble of procuring your favorite sweets! And no, there’s no price, only because you’re being quite generous on rent. Welcome back! _

_ -Ravio xoxo  _

Sky replaced the paper, feeling a bit like he’d walked in on something.  _ Notes signed with kisses? Legend never mentioned being… involved, I guess, with Ravio. Then again, I guess he’s not the type to mention it.  _

Still, he couldn’t resist teasing Legend just a  _ little _ bit after dinner. Warriors’ influence had rubbed off on him during their months-long journey. 

“So,” said Sky, sidling up to Legend as soon as no one else was in earshot, “you and Ravio?”

“What about him?” said Legend, frowning confusedly. 

Sky blinked. “Doesn’t he like you?”

“I should hope so,” said Legend. “He’s living in my house, isn’t he? Ravio only sticks around places and people he likes—or people he can get rupees out of, and I fit both criteria.”

Sky took a quick moment to squint at his friend in utter disbelief. “You sure?”

“We’re friends. What’s with the interrogation?”

“Nothing. Just curious,” said Sky slowly, leaving Legend to finish getting ready for bed. 

_ Surely he’s not  _ that _ dense.  _ Nobody’s _ that dense. Maybe it’s a recent thing? _

Quietly, Sky resolved to try and  _ fix this _ for however long they were in Legend’s house. He had little practice playing matchmaker, but it was likely that the situation only needed a small push. 

How long could it possibly take?

—

Legend ended up sleeping in the back room of his own house (partially because Ravio had taken over his actual bedroom and partially because Marin was in the tiny guest bedroom). He infinitely regretted doing so when he woke to Wind’s face inches from his nose. 

“Hylia! Wind, ever heard of personal space?” Legend tugged his blanket over his head, but Wind yanked it away. 

“Come on, you gotta get up,” he said, straining to take the blanket from Legend’s iron grip. “It’s Wild and Hyrule, they’re sick. Where’s your stock of potions? Do you have a magic anti-virus ring or something?”

“What?” Legend let go of the blanket in surprise, causing Wind to stumble. “They’re sick? Yeah, I’m up, where are they—what happened?”

“Apparently they decided to go outside and explore a little,” explained Wind, tugging Legend off the couch and out of the back room. “At like  _ five _ in the  _ morning.” _

Legend had been dead asleep by that point. He should have  _ still _ been asleep, seeing as it was barely half-past seven in the morning and he rarely woke up before ten at home. “Did Hyrule sleepwalk  _ again?” _

“Something like that. Thing is, they ran into some kind of weird plant—or something.”

“You don’t have anything more concrete than ‘weird plant’? Because there’s only so much I can do with that,” said Legend. 

Wind shrugged helplessly. “That’s about all we can get out of them. They got back ten minutes ago and haven’t said anything coherent since.”

Legend chewed on his lip worriedly—an old habit—and pushed forward to the living room. Only yesterday he’d been on top of the world and reunited with Marin, and now the goddesses seemed intent on throwing a wrench into the temporary peace. 

_ Business as usual, your Holinesses.  _

The first person Legend saw was Twilight sitting on the couch and laying a damp washcloth over Wild’s forehead with a worried look on his face. He glanced up and gave a quick nod in greeting before returning to his task. Wild himself looked unnaturally pale and sweaty and lay with his head in Twilight’s lap listlessly, barely a trace of his normal fidgeting visible. 

Hyrule looked no better—he’d been laid out on the other couch in a similar fashion to Wild, his curls plastered to his forehead by sweat. He cracked open an eye when Legend practically ran over to him, weakly raising one hand in greeting. 

“Weird plant, huh? You should know better,” muttered Legend, checking his temperature—too hot.  _ Way  _ too hot. Hyrule made a passing imitation of his usual grin.

“They’re both a little delirious, and the potions we have aren’t making a dent,” said Twilight. “This is your Hyrule, so…”

“Where’s Ravio? He knows as much about potions as I do, maybe more,” said Legend, standing up from his crouching position. Then he remembered the time. “Yeah, never mind. He’s impossible to wake up. The others?”

“Everyone else—besides Wind—is still asleep,” explained Twilight. “I figured you’d want to know right away about ‘Rule.”

“What? It’s not like I don’t care at all, but Hyrule specifically?”

Twilight snorted. “You’ve got a soft spot for him and we all know it. He’s your successor, after all.”

“I do  _ not _ have a soft spot for anybody,” said Legend. 

Wind piped up before the conversation could become an argument. “Guys? Potions?”

“Right.” Legend went back to examining Hyrule, conscious of Twilight’s eyes on his back. “Can you tell me what the plant looked like?”

“Cups,” said Hyrule dizzily, waving his fingers in the air. 

“See? They’ve both been repeating that,” said Wind. “Watch this—Wild, what happened out there?”

“Cups…”

“What’s my name?”

“Huh?”

“Don’t make him talk too much, we don’t know if it’s painful or not,” said Twilight reprovingly. Wind stuck his tongue out at him. 

Legend thought about it, brow scrunched. “If they’re just repeating the one word, it’s not gibberish—it’s a description. I swear I know which plant this is… be right back.”

Ten minutes later, he returned with a heavy book that smelled of mildew and triumphantly held it open before Hyrule. “This it, buddy?”

Hyrule tapped the picture clumsily, nodding. “See? Cups…”

“Thought so.” Legend showed the book to Wind and Twilight, gesturing to the illustrations of large, swooping blossoms. “This is the Afternoon Lily. The buds look like teacups. You can make some pretty nasty stuff out of the leaves—Hyrule, don’t tell me you two licked it or something!”

“Nn…”

“I’m going to assume that means no. But then why is it so…” Legend trailed off, noticing something odd on Hyrule’s bare wrist. He gingerly lifted it to get a better look and hissed in displeasure at the stretch of pinkish skin. “Rash. Hold on-”

“A rash?” Twilight let Legend get close to examine Wild, who clumsily tried to bat away oncoming hands. “Is that better or worse news?”

“Yes and no,” said Legend, showing Twilight the pinkish spots on Wild’s neck. It had been hidden by his many scars before, but the scar tissue was much rougher in texture and could be picked out by touch. “It means they didn’t  _ eat _ it, at least, but they definitely fell right into a patch of the stuff and got the oils all over their bare skin. Great.”

“Tripped…” managed Wild, making a gesture with one hand that could be interpreted as someone falling down a hill. 

“This is why I don’t usually let you out of my sight,” Twilight told him, half exasperated and half worried. 

“What’s the cure?” asked Wind, reaching for the book to scan it himself. He squinted at the page. “Oh, yeah. I can’t read your Hylian.”

“There’s a cure, but it’s not a potion,” said Legend, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Just time—the concept, not the hero. This is the kind of thing you rest off, and it takes  _ days.” _

Twilight frowned, glancing down at Wild. “But it’s not fatal?”

“Not unless they actually ingested a  _ lot _ of the raw plant,” said Legend. “It has to be concentrated to cause real damage. This won’t be very fun, though, and we’re definitely not traveling with them anytime soon.”

“How long is ‘anytime soon’?” asked Wind.

“I give it… a week, maybe more, and that’s the optimistic guess. You can’t push Afternoon Lily poisoning or else it’ll just keep coming back.”

Wind cursed less-than-quietly, prompting a halfhearted glare from Twilight. Hyrule mumbled something nonsense-sounding that was  _ probably _ a response to Wind—he could be worse about reprimanding for language than Time himself. Legend usually found that annoying. 

_ Guess there is a bit of a soft spot.  _

Legend occupied himself with checking Hyrule’s temperature again and tugging a blanket over the shivering hero despite the heat, no longer caring about Twilight’s comments. He eventually left to grab something resembling breakfast, both for himself and the others—he doubted any of them would be falling asleep again. 

Surprisingly, Ravio was already in the kitchen, yawning and mixing what looked like oatmeal with some form of berry in a bowl. His sleep clothes were oddly similar to his regular ones, all purple flowing cloth, and he had to shove his unbrushed bangs out of his face to get a good look at Legend.

“G’mornin, Mr. Hero,” he said drowsily. “Come here often?”

“Did we actually wake you up?”

“A bit. I try to get up before Marin nowadays anyway.”

“Uh… sorry,” said Legend brusquely, reaching for the cupboard. “We’ve got a little crisis on our hands.”

He explained the situation while putting together toast for himself, Twilight, and Wind (and oatmeal for Wild and Hyrule). As he did, Ravio quickly lost the sleepy look in his eyes.

“Afternoon Lily poisoning? Oh, that’s not good,” he said, shaking his head. The motion made his bangs fall into his eyes again and he brushed them away huffily. “How are you planning on adventuring, then?”

“We’re not,” said Legend. “It’s not like everybody knows about this and can agree, but we really can’t safely move Wild and Hyrule. We’re stuck here for at least a week.”

Ravio blinked. “I wish I could say it was a total pleasure having you home, Mr. Hero, but the circumstances… yikes! Let me know if I can help.”

“You can carry some of these bowls,” said Legend, holding two of said bowls out to him. 

“Gladly!”

Ravio, for whatever reason, scuttled off as soon as he had helped deliver breakfast. Legend was left to keep an eye on Hyrule and Wild while Wind decided to wake up the other heroes (“If we have to be up and dealing with this, so does everybody else!”). Legend didn’t bother trying to stop him—if Wind wanted to try and drag Sky out of bed, at least it would keep him occupied for about another hour. 

—

Marin was in the garden when Ravio came dashing out the back door, busily checking over the tomato plants for bugs. She liked to start early for the peace and quiet—peace and quiet which, unfortunately, was shattered by her roommate. 

“There’s a situation,” he said breathlessly, skidding right up to her. “Mr. Hero’s family—a couple of them ran into some Afternoon Lilies earlier this morning.”

Marin frowned. “Are those bad?”

“Well, not  _ fatal,” _ said Ravio, brushing off his nightshirt. “But no traveling for them. We’re going to have a full house for at least a week, maybe more.”

“Oh, no! I hope Link’s family is alright…” Marin trailed off as a thought occurred to her. “Wait, a  _ week? _ That’s going to be… interesting. Oh, just  _ seeing _ him again was enough to give me jitters-“

Ravio paled. “I never even considered that! Not that I  _ want _ Mr. Hero gone, but-“

They stared at each other helplessly for a moment before Marin giggled. “We’re both hopeless.”

“I am  _ far _ from hopeless!” protested Ravio. “Er, regardless… we have our work cut out for us. I think Mr. Hero’s family might have—er—noticed something.”

“You left the cookies and the note out in plain sight for anyone to find, didn’t you?” said Marin, arching her brow at him 

Ravio turned bright red. “Of course not! It’s not like he ended up  _ reading _ it, anyway. All that effort! Wasted!”

“I might need a new wingman…”

“The audacity!” Ravio clutched imaginary pearls in mock outrage. “After all the plans I’ve helped you make! You’re  _ not _ getting the cookie recipe.”

“How dare you!” Marin threw a handful of dirt at him, giggling when Ravio immediately retreated.  _ “You’re _ not getting ocarina lessons, then.”

“Truce! Truce!” cried Ravio from behind a potted fern. Sheerow fluttered around his head, eventually deciding to nest right there without a care in the world. He chirped reprovingly when Marin jokingly held up another handful of dirt. 

“I guess that’s two votes for a truce,” said Marin with a chuckle. “Alright, fine. Truce. Let’s see how this week goes.”

“If he doesn’t respond to my advances by this point, I might just be forced to admit that my original plan failed,” moaned Ravio. 

“...Original plan? Do I want to know?”

“I  _ may _ have been angling to endear myself to Mr. Hero for the sake of business. It, er, backfired.”

Marin started cackling despite herself. “You—that’s the worst business strategy I’ve ever heard of!”

“Believe me,” said Ravio ruefully, “I’ve realized that for myself.”


	2. Progress (?)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warriors starts his plotting and drags the other Links into it—but Legend’s sheer lack of romantic braincells is starting to become a real obstacle. Time gets a headache, Sky’s starting to wonder if it’s just a Hero’s Spirit trait, and Wind considers telling scary stories a valid matchmaking tactic.

Warriors had a plan. It was not the usual sort of plan he made—those were saved for battle, for the dividing and conquering of opposing forces and being sure that every player was precisely where he wanted them to be. 

Maybe it  _ was _ the sort of plan he usually made, Warriors reflected, finally locating his target nested in a half-circle of various bits of jewelry in Legend’s incredibly-cluttered attic. 

“Four, I need some dedicated backup. Do you have my back?”

Four eyed him warily from the floor, where he’d been attempting to organize Legend’s terrible excuse for a storage system for the past hour. “Always, depending on how ridiculous it is.”

“That’s a contradictory—never mind. We’re helping Legend,” said Warriors. 

“With what?” Four squinted at a silver ring as if debating whether or not to try it on. “He’s doing an alright job handling eight heroes and two other houseguests without going nuts so far.”

“It’s the  _ houseguests _ that are the issue,” said Warriors. “Hear me out-“

“That’s never a sentence that ends well. Don’t you like Ravio and Marin?”

“I’ve met future versions of them both, but let me finish! Listen, there’s obviously something going on between them and Legend,” said Warriors. “And  _ he’s _ obviously blind as a Keese.”

“You’re just bored, aren’t you?” said Four, waving the ring at him and choosing to ignore the bit about future versions of Ravio and Marin. “We’ve only been here a day and you’re already making plots. He can’t be  _ that _ bad.”

“You saw him at lunch today,” said Warriors pointedly. Four grimaced and conceded, clearly remembering the incident (involving a bouquet of roses and Legend immediately having no reaction whatsoever). 

“Good point,” he said, setting aside the ring and digging through the box at his feet for another of the same size. “But I can’t help, unfortunately.”

“What? Why not?” 

“Because I’m leaving for a few days,” said Four. “Legend said there’s a blacksmith nearby, and I’m  _ not _ staying in the same house as two sick people even if they’re not contagious. Did I forget to say something about that?”

“Yes. Yes, you did,” said Warriors, sighing heavily. “Fine, I’ll find someone else.”

“Good luck,” said Four. “Wild’s about the only one who would be your partner in crime, and he’s out of the running.”

Warriors glanced at the floor as if he could see through it, where he knew Wild and Hyrule were probably deliriously bouncing nonsense words off one another. “You’re counting out Wind. Good luck on the blacksmithing trip.”

“Eh, I’m not gone yet,” said Four, digging out a necklace set with rubies and holding it up to the light. “Maybe I’ll come back with engagement gifts or something. Swords are good for that, right?”

“Probably. Knowing Legend, you should probably learn how to make cursed items or something.”

Four pursed his lips as he continued to dig through the box to sort it. “No magic things! Not even for a friend—how in the name of Hylia does he  _ find _ anything in this mess?”

Warriors stood and turned in a slow circle to look at the storeroom full of magic items. “Luck. That, or one of his seven million rings he wears.”

“Wouldn’t put it past him,” sighed Four, wiggling out of the alcove he’d set up for himself. The tiny spot of organized jewelry sat dwarfed by the rest of the towering shelves and boxes, much like Four himself. “You know what? I give up. I’m just gonna pack a bag and leave now before Legend’s horrific excuse for an organized storage space kills me.”

“You’re kidding, but some of this stuff probably  _ would _ kill you,” said Warriors, eyeing a suspicious-looking dagger nearby. 

Four gingerly stepped away from the shelves. “You’re right—wait, I know who could help you!”

Warriors frowned. “Who?”

“Time,” said Four earnestly. “If anyone knows how to get people together, it’s someone who  _ actually got married.” _

“That’s—actually, you have a point,” said Warriors. “He’s  _ got _ to have been good at courting to land someone like Malon. I’ll see if I can convince him.”

Warriors knew he sometimes got a gleam in his eye while plotting. Evidently it was a little more off-putting than he thought, since Four immediately changed tack. 

“Alright,” said Four slowly, inching around Warriors to get to the door. “I’m gonna go. Good luck with your battle tactics—sorry,  _ matchmaking.” _

Warriors bid Four goodbye with a suspicious glance as he went. Something was up with the Hero of the Four Sword… but there were more pressing matters, anyway. He filed Four’s odd behavior away for later and went to find Time. He was reasonably sure it wouldn’t take much to convince the old man for some advice. 

“Absolutely not,” said Time flatly when asked. Warriors had finally tracked him down to the roof after an hour of search—a clearly unappreciated gesture. “It’s none of my business. I know I can’t stop  _ you, _ but-“

“Oh, come on,” wheedled Warriors. “At least give  _ me _ some pointers, if you won’t say anything to Legend.”

Time sighed heavily, setting his book aside (Warriors was fairly certain he’d “borrowed” it from Legend’s library). “Not… the best idea.”

“Why not?”

Time actually slid lower in his chair like an embarrassed teenager. “Don’t make me say it.”

“You owe me for refusing to help,” countered Warriors. He didn’t balk under the impressive glare Time threw his way. 

Time sighed again and covered his face with one hand. “Because I was  _ worse  _ at Legend’s age, and I definitely haven’t gotten any better at identifying romantic advances.”

Warriors stared at him disbelievingly for a few seconds. “Time, that’s physically impossible. Marin kissed him on the cheek earlier today and he just said ‘thanks’ and moved on without acknowledging it.”

“Malon and I were dating for three years before I found out about it. Trust me, I’m worse.”

“You  _ cannot _ be serious.” Only years of knight training and time spent around nobles kept Warriors from outright dissolving into laughter despite Time’s bright-red face. “You—how?  _ Literally _ how?”

“I was raised by  _ immortal children, _ why in the name of Hylia would I know anything about relationships or marriage or—would you just laugh and get it over with?”

Warriors, to his credit, didn’t let his laughing fit last very long. “How in  _ Hyrule _ did you even manage to get married?”

“Luck,” said Time wearily. “If you’re just going to laugh and make plans that I have no intention of taking part in, get off my roof. I’m trying to take a small vacation here.”

Warriors chose to refrain from saying something like ‘this is Legend’s roof’ and left the embarrassed Time behind, recalculating his plans as he climbed down a ladder sent against the building to reach the ground. Maybe he could simply help Marin and Ravio on his own—the two were clearly collaborating—but somehow, he doubted only three people would be enough. Legend was almost impressively oblivious, to the point where… hmm.

“Maybe he’s faking,” Warriors said aloud, voicing his thought process. Much to his shock, the tree in Legend’s backyard responded—or rather, the person inexplicably lounging in the tree responded.

“He’s not,” said Sky casually, as if he weren’t currently eight feet off the ground and using a tree trunk as a backrest. “Assuming you mean Legend, he’s definitely not faking.”

“I’ll come back to that, but—why are you in a tree?”

Sky shrugged, plucking the harp cradled in his lap lazily. “It’s peaceful. I like to be high up, and Time’s hogging the roof, so now I’m in the tree.”

“And here I thought you were doing Wild’s job while he’s sick,” said Warriors. “You were saying? About Legend?”

“He’s not faking anything,” said Sky. “He’s legitimately that-“

“Dense?” supplied Warriors. 

“I was going to say ‘romantically oblivious’, Warriors,” said Sky. “He’s smart otherwise, just not in this case.”

“You sound like you have proof,” said Warriors, placing his hands on his hips. 

“I asked Ravio and Marin both, actually,” said Sky. “You know, talking to people frankly? No convoluted plots? They both said—well, Ravio especially—that this behavior from Legend is typical. He just doesn’t ‘get’ the romantic stuff.”

“Think you can help?” Warriors asked. “You and Sun…”

But Sky was already blushing furiously. “I’m… well, she did most of the work. You don’t want to know how long it took to realize how I felt and that Sun felt the same way.”

Warriors just stared at him. “Seriously? First we end up in the Great Sea and Wind is—well, you saw  _ that _ debacle—then Legend… happens, and Time tells me it took him  _ three years _ to realize he was dating Malon-“

“What?”

“And then you come along and tell me you’re just as bad,” lamented Warriors. “Is this a Hero’s Spirit thing?  _ You _ started this!”

“That would make  _ you _ equally bad,” said Sky, unimpressed. “Anyways, if you want help with Legend, I’ll gladly offer it.” 

“And I’ll gladly accept it.”

“Got anything in mind?” Sky asked. 

Warriors knew his face was slowly stretching into a Wild-worthy grin, but he didn’t bother hiding it. “Oh, a few. How do you feel about family game night?”

—

Everyone chipped in on taking care of Wild and Hyrule, but Legend caught himself doing the brunt of the temperature-checking and water-administering. Not that he  _ minded _ keeping an eye on the two younger heroes, even if his aloof reputation took a hit—but his current situation was less than ideal. 

“Wild, I am  _ not _ a body pillow.”

“Hrmph,” mumbled Wild, clinging tighter to Legend. Somehow, he’d managed to cling to Legend’s torso like a demented koala even at the awkward angle, latching on when Legend went to stand up from checking on him and refusing to let go. His forehead burned where it was buried in Legend’s back. 

“Wild, come on,” said Legend, trying and failing to escape the awkward hug. He was half-on and half-off the couch, stuck between standing and sitting, all because Wild  _ would not let go.  _ At least Hyrule wasn’t awake to see it—not that he would have helped much, being equally delirious. “I mean it. Let go.”

“Nn.”

“Wild, for the love of-“ Legend pulled against the steel grip to no avail. He didn’t want to hurt Wild or confuse him too much, but being stuck like that was  _ uncomfortable— _

“Link?”

Legend froze, finally spotting Marin in the doorway. There was a beat of silence. 

“Don’t you dare-“

But Marin was already giggling. “Softie!”

“No-“ Legend tried once more to escape and failed.  _ How  _ did Wild keep his arms locked while woozy from illness? It was like wrestling a bear! “No, he’s just really out of it—a hand, please?”

For whatever reason, Marin’s touch was enough to make Wild realize in part what was going on and release Legend. He mumbled something sleepily as he did, frowning like he had a headache—which he probably did. Legend had gotten into a patch of Afternoon Lilies once as a kid, and the experience was not a pleasant memory. 

“Ravio said they’re your family, but…” Marin trailed off, studying his face and Wild’s. Clearly, she saw how few and far between the similarities were. “How distant?”

“Very,” said Legend, debating whether or not to tell her the truth. He settled for part of it. “Let’s just say it’s a  _ really _ complicated connection. Most of us aren’t actually related, it’s more of a bond.”

Marin started tapping her fingers together mischievously. “Brothers-in-arms, huh? You must really like them.”

“Don’t start. I can’t get rid of them,” said Legend, crossing his arms. Hyrule made a sleepy noise across the room—pure chance, or was he listening? “But… I do owe them my life several times over. If I  _ had _ to be stuck traveling in a group, I’d pick this one.”

The little smile on Marin’s face stirred something in his chest. Legend idly wondered if Ravio had used bad radishes in lunch again as she reached out to brush a bit of lint off his shoulder, her hand lingering briefly. “I’m glad to hear you’re happy on whatever task took you so far from home, Link.”

“Happy’s a stretch, but I guess I’m not railing at the gods every day,” acquiesced Legend.

Marin shook her head teasingly. “Still pretending to be grumpy all the time. You’re allowed to open up around me, at least—you know that, right?”

“I, uh…” Legend trailed off, unsure what to say. He chose to change the subject. “Did you come in here for something?”

“Oh! Yes, your family member, the one with the fancy scarf—he asked me to come get you,” said Marin earnestly.

“Warriors?”

“Yes, him. He’s starting a game and he wants, quote, “everyone who isn’t laid up” to join,” said Marin. “I’m playing. Something called Truth or Dare…?”

Legend groaned. “Truth or Dare with Warriors? I’ll draw a mustache on Twilight’s face in his sleep on my own time, thanks, and you can tell Wars that.”

“Oh, alright,” said Marin, stepping away. “He  _ did _ say you’d be too scared to play with him in the group-“

“He said  _ what?  _ Point me in the right direction, I’m joining you,” said Legend immediately stepping forward to follow her. 

Marin took his hand to tug him out of the living room and through his house to the backward, where just about everyone (with the exception of Four, Wild, and Hyrule—and Time, who was sitting on the porch after opting out of the game) was relaxing on his lawn with glasses of milk or juice and laughter in the air. Marin gently led Legend to sit between her and Ravio with their backs to the house and kept her hand in his—was she nervous around the other heroes?

Legend glanced at Time’s intimidating silhouette against the setting sun and decided that he was  _ probably _ right. If Marin wanted to hold onto his hand for that reason, he wouldn’t stop her. Granted,  _ Ravio  _ had no apparent business flopping right onto his shoulder, but Legend knew it was futile to stop him. At least the pressure of someone at his side was comforting to a degree, soothing the itch for contact constantly under his skin. 

“Decided to show up?” Warriors’ grin was entirely too smug, but Legend only rolled his eyes. 

“I hope you’re ready for me,” he shot back, the effect somewhat ruined by Sheerow deciding his hair made an excellent nest. He shooed Ravio’s demented bird away but only succeeded in earning a reproving peck, at which point Legend gave up on trying. 

Warriors snorted. “Well-“

“ME FIRST! DIBS!” Wind cried, nearly deafening poor Sky next to him. Legend was honestly surprised Sky was even playing and not sitting on the porch with Time, considering how drowsy he already looked. It was  _ barely _ after dinner, the narcoleptic. 

“I-“ Warriors began, looking put-out, but Wind cut him off again. 

“Twilight! Truth or dare?”

Twilight eyed Wind suspiciously. Legend already knew what was going through his head—accept one of Wind’s usually-insane dares and probably break a bone (or a window) or go with truth and have the little pirate label him a coward?

“Dare,” he said eventually, prompting Wind to break out the most evil smile Legend had ever seen from a fourteen-year-old. 

“Deadlift Warriors.”

“What?” Warriors tried to escape, but he was too slow—Twilight moved like lightning and hooked his shoulders under Warriors’ legs before anyone could do anything more than stare.

Wind started cackling. 

“This is  _ undignified.”  _ Warriors complained, but it was a little hard to take him seriously when his face was turning red from his head being upside-down. “Do I even weigh anything to you?”

“You’ve got some muscle density, I’ll give you that,” said Twilight, shrugging with Warriors still slung over his shoulders.

_ “Some?  _ Put me down, ranchhand-“

Twilight slung him to the ground with enough restraint to not hurt him, but Warriors’ ego was clearly bruised. He didn’t perk up for the next couple rounds of the game until his turn to dare someone came, at which point a grin stretched across his face as he made eye contact with Legend.

_ Oh, boy. _

“Truth or Dare, Legend?”

“Truth,” said Legend, sure that Warriors couldn’t ask him anything debilitating. 

“Is there anyone you’re in love with?” Warriors asked with a too-bright smile. 

Next to him, Ravio made a noise like a mouse being stepped on and yanked his hood over his face. Marin went stock-still for some reason, but Legend was too busy watching Warriors’ smug face and sighing heavily to wonder why. 

“You found the documents, didn’t you?” he accused, ignoring the minor crisis Ravio seemed to be having on his shoulder. “Snoop. I’m  _ letting _ you put on a cursed ring next time around.”

“Wait, what documents?” Wind glanced between Legend and Warriors, the latter of whom had a carefully-curated poker face on. 

“Yeah, I did. Got something to tell the group?” said Warriors, cocking an eyebrow at him.

Legend rolled his eyes. “Look, it’s for tax reasons.”

“Mr. Hero,  _ please,”  _ said Ravio, emerging from his hood slightly. “It’s also because I’m an illegal immigrant. And  _ you  _ called it tax  _ evasion.” _

“I lost you,” said Sky.

“Ravio and I are legally married. Like I said, tax reasons,” said Legend with another heavy sigh. Time choked on his drink behind them. “Ravio’s not from Hyrule and he refuses to go through official channels, so my Zelda pulled some strings-“

Twilight started cackling. “Of  _ course  _ you got legally married to evade taxes. That’s the most Legend thing I’ve ever heard!”

“Getting married for money is nothing. I once became a truant officer for fifty rupees,” boasted Wind. “Then I traded butterfly necklaces for the deed to the teacher’s house. That was a weird day.”

“If this is a competition now, I think I win for causing a storm just to find treasure chests on a regular basis,” said Time dryly. Twilight gave him a suspicious look, but as normal, no one could tell if the old man was being serious or not. 

“Wild’s probably got you beat,” said Sky lightly. “Didn’t he mention nearly dying to get a picture of one of those Lynel creatures for someone?”

“What’s a Lynel?” Marin asked. A beat of silence spread through the group in the wake of her question. 

Sky reacted first. “No, don’t get Twi started-“

“They’re the worst  _ possible _ thing where Wild’s from and if I had a rupee for every time he’s looked for one to fight  _ on purpose  _ I’d be a rich man-“

It took a solid ten minutes to cool Twilight down—longer than normal, but Legend knew he was more worried about Wild than normal, so he let it slide without any jabs. While Marin watched the show with rapt eyes, Ravio had gone uncharacteristically quiet next to him.

“You don’t find Lynels out this way,” Legend told him, sure that the conversation about Wild’s insane horse-lion-men had scared Ravio. 

“Hm? Oh, good. They sound fearsome,” said Ravio, shuddering dramatically. Somehow, he went even  _ more _ boneless, flopping right over into Legend’s lap. “Good thing I’ve got such a big, strong hero for a… husband… cowardly old Ravio, ha, right?”

Legend snorted. “All right, stop. I’d protect you and you know it—but don’t sell yourself short. I’ve seen you be brave, and I know it’s still in there.”

Ravio blinked up at him. “I… thank you.”

“Anytime,” said Legend, allowing a tiny smile to quirk across his face for a brief second. There really  _ must _ have been some bad radishes in the salad, because when he looked into Ravio’s bewildered eyes, Legend felt the oddest twinge in his chest again. “Now get off my lap, my leg’s losing all feeling-“

“Of course!” Ravio scrambled away faster than Legend could blink, his face red. 

“I know you keep that cloak on because it keeps you calm, but maybe you should find a lighter one,” said Legend. “You look a little hot.”

Indeed, Ravio appeared to be overheating right then and there. “H-hot?”

“Yeah, your face is red.”

Someone snickered—Wind? Legend couldn’t imagine why. Ravio  _ was  _ a little odd to people who didn’t know him, but Wind’s friends consisted of pirates and a guy who had once been a dream, so he couldn’t say anything. 

“Good plan as always, Mr. Hero!” Ravio lurched to his feet. “I’m just—I’m just gonna go. It’s getting late! Goodnight, all!”

Legend watched him go inside and remembered to shock the horizon, surprised that the night had managed to sneak up on him. “Ravio’s got a point. We’ve definitely done enough for tonight.”

He left before anyone could stop him, even though it felt funny to relinquish Marin’s hand. He’d probably just held it for too long, like sleeping with his arm pinned and waking up to the pattern of the sheets on his skin. 

—

Time wordlessly balled up a page of newspaper and threw it at Warriors with precise aim. It bounced off his forehead and hit Wind, who yelped despite the lightweight projectile. “You said you had a plan. That was  _ the _ worst plan I’ve ever seen.”

“What?” said Twilight while Warriors started sputtering. “Plan? I think I’m missing something.”

“He’s playing matchmaker,” said Time flatly. “Come on now, Captain, I was under the impression you were a strategist.”

“I never claimed to be a good  _ romantic  _ strategist,” countered Warriors, much to Time’s chagrin. 

“And you—I know you’re helping,” he said, pointing to Sky (an accusation which made Twilight gape and Wind start glancing between Sky and Warriors as if wondering what could have made the duo team up). “I thought I could depend on Twilight to join in on this mess-“

“Hey!”

“-but you, Sky? I thought you were the rational one.”

Sky shrugged, remarkably calm under Time’s Serious look. “I’m trying to help, not scheme. I just didn’t have any better ideas. Have you  _ seen  _ Marin and Ravio’s faces—ah, no offense.”

Marin sighed heavily, burying her face in her hands. “You’re all lovely, really, but I don’t think this is working.”

Just then, Ravio reappeared, his cheeks still flushed red. His next words were pointed at Warriors: “That went horribly. Mr. Captain Hero Sir-“

“You really don’t have to call me that-“

“-I’m starting to wonder just how helpful you can be. You didn’t even know about those documents, did you?”

“Like  _ we’re _ doing peachy on our own,” said Marin, a point which Ravio had to concede to. 

“I had no idea what he was talking about,” admitted Warriors. “But, roll back—legally married for tax reasons? Something tells me that wasn’t all of it.”

“Someone explain why Sky and Warriors are working together first,” declared Wind.  _ “And _ why you guys didn’t invite me!”

Time moved to intervene. “One at a ti-“

He realized what had been about to leave his mouth too late, causing Wind to start cackling. “Oh yeah,  _ Time?” _

It took entirely too much time—too  _ many minutes,  _ Hylia’s sake—to sort out the ensuing storm of time puns, much to the actual Time’s chagrin. He loved a good pun, but timing was crucial, and the timing was just plain bad. 

He chose to ignore his own puns for the sake of the subject at hand.

“Wind, if you choose to get involved  _ respectfully, _ feel free,” said Time sternly, fixing his gaze on each Link in turn (he left Ravio and Marin alone—they’d suffered enough). “There’s not a lot to do here for an extended period of time anyways—do  _ not  _ start another round—and Warriors, I believe you had a question for Ravio?”

“That I did. Legally married?”

Ravio tugged his hood over his eyes. “See,  _ Link  _ thinks that’s all there is to it, but I… er… meant it. I shouldn’t have just blurted it out one day, but I did, and next thing I knew we were up at the castle and I’m technically a citizen of Hyrule. Link never mentions it, but he said he didn’t mind doing a favor for such a, quote, ‘friendly guy’.”

Marin sympathetically patted him on the back, a sentiment Time tried to convey with a look. Wind was making his strange thinking face, Twilight just stared off into the distance, Sky awkwardly fiddled with the end of his tunic, and Warriors looked outright ready to bang his head against the wall.

“I knew we were all bad,” said Warriors eventually, disregarding Wind’s indignant “HEY” as he spoke, “but that… that takes the cake.”

“We’ve got our work cut out for us,” said Twilight. Time sighed. 

“We both appreciate the help,” said Marin earnestly, “but… hm. Let’s maybe take a  _ little _ more time to think through any more plans, yeah?”

Sky laid a hand over Wind’s mouth before he could try any more puns, much to Time’s relief. 

—

Warriors could  _ feel  _ the bags under his eyes growing over the next three or so days. In a move that clearly had Twilight flashing back to the infamous attempt at clarifying their  _ mess  _ of a hero timeline (started by Four and Warriors, ended by Time, and involving at least one shouting match) he’d started to make a chart on the various tried, failed, and untried plans invented by the matchmaking squad. After taking his turn to check up on Wild and Hyrule one day, Warriors chose to go over his notes again, just to see if anything had miraculously changed in the ten minutes he hadn’t touched them. 

**_Candlelit dinner (Ravio):_ ** _ Legend started huffing about fire hazards and was gone before either Marin or Ravio could explain what the actual purpose was (Failed, might need fake candles to try again). _

**_Scary stories (Wind):_ ** _ Legend wasn’t scared of any of Wind’s horror stories and didn’t react when Marin squeezed his arm tight enough to cut off blood flow or when Ravio flat-out leapt into his lap (besides to awkwardly pat the shoulders of both parties—possible blush, partial victory). _

**_“Subtle” influencing (Sky):_ ** _ Sky tried to explain that Ravio and Marin were acting oddly for romantic reasons, Legend made a crack about being basically unlovable and didn’t believe him. Sky was too flustered to continue (failed. Note: when Hyrule and Wild are coherent again, make sure Legend gets a group hug).  _

**_Reminiscing about other relationships (Time):_ ** _ Legend didn’t take the hint. Time got too carried away talking about Malon, which makes sense, but he still lost sight of the plan (failed. Note: never get Time drunk if he’s this bad sober. Alternatively, make sure Wild is nearby with his Slate to record).  _

**_Different subtle influencing (Twi, carried out by Time):_ ** _ Legend admitted to feeling slightly strange around both Ravio and Marin when asked if he was doing alright. Mentioned liking seeing their smiles more than other people’s (!!). Also admitted to not being entirely sure how relationships are different from friendships and made another crack about having next to no one to ask/experience it with because “That’s just [Legend’s] luck”. (Not a total failure, definite mutual feelings. Point Sky in his direction for a hug ASAP, because this is starting to get unnerving).  _

His notes continued in such a fashion, getting longer and more frustrated as time went on. Warriors had actually stopped referring to the issue as a Hero’s Spirit phenomenon, because that would mean admitting he was equally as bad as Legend—and Twilight would  _ never _ let him live that down. Wind already teased him for the sheer number of exes they ran into in his Hyrule, Warriors did  _ not _ need more of that. 

_ “You’re _ dating someone,” he said to the snoring Wild, “but you can’t help right now. This is the most frustrating sort of project, isn’t it? I’m stuck, though. Got to see things through, both for Legend’s sake and the sake of my pride.”

Wild, predictably, didn’t respond. It was tough seeing someone who normally had mannerisms all over the place be so… quiet. Logically, Warriors knew he was fine—that both him and Hyrule were fine, just out of it—but logic didn’t hold up too well against feverish skin and a painful-looking rash.

“Sorry I can’t help more,” he said to Wild. Was the twitch Wild’s eyebrow made a response or just a spasm? “I mean it. Legend said this hurts… and you two are definitely paying an unfair price. You’d love to help out, I know—someone’s got to record.”

The part of him that was first and foremost a Captain told Warriors that he was at least partially responsible for the sorry state of two of his comrades— _ brothers.  _

_ No one can stop those two from exploring, not even you,  _ he told himself.  _ It’s not your fault. Provided you help with the aftermath, there’s no guilt here.  _

That didn’t stop Warriors from fretting, so he stood from his spot at the foot of Wild’s couch to make sure Hyrule’s blankets were on snugly. He and Wild had both taken to shivering violently recently—the next stage of the poisoning, according to Legend—and almost nothing seemed to warm them. 

“...Wars?” 

“Hyrule?” Warriors fumbled his notebook and set it aside on the floor to kneel before Hyrule, who had blearily opened his eyes from behind his sweaty bangs and mass of pillows. “How are you feeling?”

Hyrule’s brow creased. “Where’s… Legend…?”

It was clear that talking hurt him, so Warriors gently patted Hyrule’s hand where it poked from the blankets. “It’s okay, bud. Legend’s in the shop helping Ravio out.”

Hyrule frowned deeper. Could he actually understand a word Warriors was saying, or was he just rambling? It was hit-or-miss of late. “C’n… get him…?”

“I’ll get Legend if you want him here,” promised Warriors. Only then did Hyrule relax somewhat—though only  _ somewhat. _ He winced when he lowered his head back to the pillow, eliciting a pang of sympathy from Warriors as he stood to leave. 

—

“Hyrule wants you.”

Those three words were enough to make Legend stop in his tracks while organizing a rack of specialty arrows and whip around to Warriors’ silhouette in the doorway to the rest of the house. “He’s up?”

“Well, he’s talking,” said Warriors. “He asked me to get you-“

But Legend was already pushing past him, leaving Ravio to haggle with a particularly persistent customer who insisted she knew “the real owner” of the shop (a phenomenon Ravio was used to and had a reputation for dealing with flawlessly). Hyrule’s pale face sticking out from the pile of blankets—courtesy of Wind—was what greeted him in the living room, accompanied by a tiny, exhausted wave.

“You called?” said Legend quietly, going to kneel by the couch so that he’d be on Hyrule’s level. “I’m glad you’re talking, that’s a good sign-“

“H’w much longer…?” slurred Hyrule, his voice a weak imitation of its normal chime. “Y’said… y’had this before… it’s been a day…?”

“About three days,” corrected Legend hesitantly. “I’m… I’m sorry, but it’s gonna be a little while longer before you’re better. Afternoon Lilies suck, I know.”

Hyrule’s mouth wavered. “Right. M’sorry for gettin’to a mess… Wild is too…”

Legend could have sworn he felt his carefully-guarded heart crack right then and there. “Hyrule, no. It’s not your fault. I should have mentioned the woods nearby are dangerous. This is on me.”

Hyrule made a disagreeing noise, but it was half-hearted and weak and cut off by a wince. “Hurts…”

With that, Legend’s heart cracked even further. “I know. I’m sorry. I’m  _ so  _ sorry.”

Limply, Hyrule reached out and patted his shoulder, but the motion only served to split Legend’s heart  _ more. _ He unconsciously jerked away from the contact and blanched when Hyrule blinked confusedly at him, clearly wondering what was so wrong with Legend that he’d refuse a simple shoulder pat.

“I’m gonna get you some water, okay?” he said quickly, standing up robotically. Hyrule nodded limply and closed his eyes again, evening out his raspy breathing. The sound of a door opening jarred him from his mission, however. 

“That’s us closed up for the lunch hour. Some of these  _ people,  _ Mr. Hero, they’re just intolerable-“

Ravio stopped mid-sentence and mid-step, halting just beyond the doorway to stare open-jawed. Belatedly, Legend realized that he had no idea what his facial expression looked like and promptly left the room on total autopilot. 

_ Left foot, right foot. Left foot, right foot. Left foot, right foot. Get the glass. Left foot, right foot. Find the pitcher, make sure it’s full and clean.  _

“Is everything okay?” There was Ravio again, appearing in the kitchen. Legend put the glass and pitcher down on the counter wordlessly. 

“Fine,” he said, but his usual “Go Away” bite didn’t seem to be there. “Just getting Hyrule some water, you know, since he can’t… can’t get it himself.”

Next thing Legend knew, the glass had been lifted from his fingers and was hovering away from his field of vision. “I’ll make sure he gets it,” said Ravio gently. “You stay here and I’ll be right back.”

It seemed like Legend only stood by the kitchen counter for a second, vision blurring slightly, before Ravio’s hand was on his elbow and he was being tugged out another door and up a flight of stairs. Legend recognized his own bedroom door before Ravio gently pushed him inside and closed it behind them.

“Okay. No witnesses. What’s wrong?” Ravio let Legend flop into a sitting position on the bed on his own and settled beside him, scooting close. When Legend didn’t respond, he carefully reached out with one hand and laid it on his shoulder-

And Legend’s heart split right in two.

“I—I—I don’t why he’s so willing to just—just  _ trust  _ me like that, Ravio,” he managed, twisting a hand through his bangs. “He believes I’ll just  _ fix _ this mess even though I can’t and-“

Legend cut himself off and buried his head in his hands, frustrated beyond belief with himself.

“Of course he trusts you,” said Ravio, soothingly rubbing his back in slow circles. 

“You don’t  _ understand,” _ said Legend, his words muffled by his hands. 

“Then you have to explain, Link,” said Ravio. His actual name from that mouth shocked Legend enough to make him lower his hands and take a deep breath. 

“We’re heroes. All of us, the chosen heroes of courage from across eras, brought together by… something.”

Legend wasn’t making eye contact—instead, he stared intently at the floor—but slight movement to his right told him Ravio was nodding, apparently totally on board with the concept. 

_ He’s seen weirder, I guess. _

“Hyrule… he comes after me, we think,” he continued. “He’s basically my successor. I’ve seen his era. You can’t  _ imagine  _ the mess it’s in, and I left that behind. I must have failed at something, in the end, and his era paid the price.” 

“Link…”

“But he  _ doesn’t even blame me,”  _ said Legend, wringing his fingers together. “I don’t get it! He’s got so much faith in a hero who failed…”

Something Legend never had. 

“...and I let him down. I let  _ both  _ of them down. I can’t even help with a stupid toxic plant.”

Legend felt a tug and suddenly his head was resting against Ravio’s chest and a pair of arms snaked around his shoulders, loose enough to escape but tight enough to be comforting. Ravio always understood his issues with touch perfectly. 

“If he’s not blaming you,” Ravio said softly, “then why are you blaming yourself?”

Legend swallowed, his vision blurring heavily. “I-“

But he cut himself off, not trusting his own voice. Instead, Legend just buried his face in the soft cloth of Ravio’s cloak and let himself be held. 

It was a nice feeling, being held. 

—

They had stopped.

Why had they stopped?

Dark Link knew it was childish to pout. He also didn’t care, and sat upside-down on the throne he’d prepared just to be sulky. The magic mirror before him offered neither good news nor  _ anything new at all.  _ The heroes he’d baited out into the quest hadn’t moved in days from the Hero of Legend’s house except to get groceries or sightsee the town. The Hero of Four had disappeared into the local blacksmith’s  _ completely.  _ What was  _ wrong _ with them?

On the fourth day of the nonsense, Dark Link decided to go investigate himself—his monsters were tied up in other eras, as he could only infect so many—and he was curious. He waited for the fall of dusk and melted right from the shadows of the nearby woods, approaching from behind the house for maximum stealth-

“-and  _ then  _ he threw a glass of water on me! Where did it even  _ come  _ from, that’s my question.”

Dark Link stopped, slinking under the fence and using a tomato plant as cover to look for the speaker. A young woman with red hair tucked into a messy bun sat on the porch, animatedly chatting to two young men with their backs to Dark Link. One was unfamiliar to him, with purple hair and matching clothes, but the other was the Hero of Legend. 

“He  _ what?”  _ said the Hero of Legend, clearly incensed—he had started to talk with his hands as well, waving them around like he was searching for the water thrower to hit him. 

“Mr. Hero, just wait a minute before you get mad,” said the purple one. “Marin handled it like a champ!”

Marin, as her name seemed to be, blushed. “I wouldn’t call kicking him out handling it like a champ-“

“She whacked him over the head with a rolled-up flyer like he was a bug and chased him out, Mr. Hero,” chortled the purple one. “And everyone who was in the shop took her side, too! I’ve never had a better business partner.”

“Good job, Marin,” said the Hero of Legend, clearly impressed. Marin blushed as red as her hair.

Dark Link frowned as he watched the conversation continue. Clearly there was something more going on underneath the light chatter, but what?

_ I guess I don’t have anything else to do,  _ he reasoned.  _ Maybe I should check the surveillance a little better…  _

So, without any of the chatters noticing, a puddle of inky shadow slinked away from the fence and into nothingness, ready to put together the pieces of the mystery.


	3. The Rise of Dink

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dark Link enters the chat—but his plans are a little unorthodox, and he’s gonna need a vibe check before he can make any progress. Legend is, as always, oblivious, Marin sings magical songs, Ravio’s just here to vibe, and Time is entirely too tired for this

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *pretends it hasn’t been over a month since I updated* welcome back to “Legend has No Braincells: the Fic”

Legend’s eyes snapped open to a pitch-black room and… not much else. Something had woken him. Had he still been outside in some unfamiliar woods with the other Links, he would have reached for his sword—but he was home, his sword was in its proper hanging space on the wall of his actual bedroom, and there should have been no noises to wake him beyond  _ someone’s  _ (Time’s) snoring making it through the walls. 

But that hadn’t happened up until now, so why…

_ Clink. _

The kitchen, not the attic, Legend realized. He groggily slapped the crate beside his tiny spare bed which served as a bedside table until he found the alarm clock, the numerals of which had luminous paint on them to see better in the dark. It took about fifteen seconds of Legend struggling to focus his eyes to realize that it was barely even  _ three in the morning. _

_ If Wind’s trying to sneak coffee again, I swear to Hylia,  _ Legend grumbled internally, swinging his legs off the mattress so he could go deal with the issue. Wind on coffee meant a Wind who could practically vibrate through walls, and Legend did  _ not  _ need that in his house. He clumsily tugged on a pair of slippers with little bunny faces on them (a gag gift from Ravio, which Legend considered too comfortable to throw away) and did his best not to run into the wall as he stumbled out into the hallway to find whoever decided to rummage through the kitchen at ungodly hours of the morning. 

It wasn’t Wind. 

“Ravio, you’re sleep-brewing again,” said Legend, trying and failing not to slur his words. 

No response, but Legend had expected that. Ravio had the unfortunate tendency to sleepwalk at times, which included—for some reason—attempting to make tea. At least he hadn’t made it to the “boiling water” part yet. Instead, he clumsily tried to add loose tea to a tumbler, not a mug, and even managed to get most of it in—all with his eyes closed. 

Knowing from experience that waking a sleepwalker often meant getting punched in the face, Legend started gently trying to herd Ravio  _ away  _ from sharp kitchen implements and towards the stairs, which hopefully wouldn’t pose too much of a challenge (his house had been smaller, back in the days when they first knew each other—Legend had never had to get Ravio past more than a doorway or two). 

_ Just like the old days,  _ he thought—until faint snores from the living room reminded him of what was new. 

Getting the sleepwalking Ravio up the stairs wasn’t too hard. All Legend had to do was brush his arm against purple fabric and Ravio’s hand latched onto his with surprising strength, allowing Legend to act as a sort of guide dog until he got Ravio back to bed.

One hitch with that plan, however.

Ravio wouldn’t let go of his hand. 

“Wake up, pal, I need to go back to bed,” whispered Legend, fruitlessly tugging at where their hands joined. Ravio—who slept like a rock with the hearing to match—didn’t even stir, his death grip remaining unchanged. Legend sighed heavily and, still sleep-addled, made a spur-of-the-moment decision. 

Off went the bunny slippers, awkwardly onto the bed went Legend, settling into the unoccupied side of the mattress with Ravio still sleepily clinging to his arm. Legend ended up facing him after he tugged the quilt over the both of them, having nudged Ravio to roll over to make it easier for him to sleep without a numbed arm. 

_ Huh.  _

Ravio kept his hood up during shop hours—which was to say, most of the day—so whenever Legend saw his actual face lately, it was from across the dinner table or some other relatively distant position. Lying less than a foot away, even in the dim predawn light, meant he could see the freckles that dotted Ravio’s face in near-perfect detail. 

_ It’s funny,  _ Legend thought, the warmth under the covers and from Ravio’s hand slowly dragging his eyelids closed.  _ I never noticed just how many he has… they’re nice to look at. _

He drifted off not long later, still clutching Ravio’s hand—though when Legend started holding it back, he wasn’t sure.

—

Four, regrettably, had to admit at  _ some  _ point that he was slightly overstaying his welcome at the nearby forge. And when Blue piped up on the fourth day and actually  _ agreed _ with that sentiment—and all the other colors, which was rare—Four could no longer hold off. So, regretful that he couldn’t extend just one more day to avoid Legend’s house, he left with a small bundle of new swords and a hope that everything had gotten sorted out.

_ Doubt it,  _ griped Blue, who was quickly shushed by Red. Four shook his own head like he was clearing water from his ears to quiet his colors—he’d been hoping to return with his mind totally in sync, but that may have been a pipe dream. Raindrops started to hit Four’s face as he made his way to the street and started navigating to Legend’s house, the cool splashes a nice contrast to the leftover heat from the forge. Four navigated between passerby on autopilot, thankful for the years of practice while his colors were active—they didn’t feel like subsiding. 

_ Think Legend’s stopped being an idiot by now, or has Warriors’ scheming put him off romance entirely? It would for me,  _ said Blue. 

_ Nobody’s that dense. I think we’ll get to give them the swords,  _ said Green optimistically. Four absentmindedly ran a finger along the pommel of one of his newest projects, noting with pride that there wasn’t a single flaw in the woven design. 

_ I still doubt that swords make good gifts for a new relationship,  _ said Vio.  _ Should we have just bought chocolate? _

_ Who  _ wouldn’t _ want swords? I’d want matching swords,  _ said Red. 

_ Swords  _ are  _ fascinating,  _ conceded Vio. 

_ Ditto.  _

_ No duh. But now I can’t stop wanting chocolate, good job.  _

Finally at agreement, Four’s colors gave up on scattering his focus. He blinked to find that he’d already made it to Legend’s property while his colors had been busy and sighed, shifting his grip on the gift swords so that he could go to knock on the door with ease. As he walked, his shadow stretched in front of him over the front steps.

_ Sun’s to the right of us, not behind,  _ muttered Vio, instantly suspicious. 

Then the shadow grew glowing red eyes and Four yelped, scrambling for his sword as it sloshed into a humanoid form with unhealthy gray skin, pallid white hair, and an unsettling smile. 

“Pleasure to meet you,” said the shadow-person, showing entirely too many teeth. Four immediately slung the gift swords under one arm and drew the Four Sword on the offensive. “HEY! Unnecessary!”

He dodged Four’s first swipe and leapt right onto the sword blade, barely weighing it down despite being two heads taller than Four himself and clearly muscular under the simple tunic and leggings. He almost looked like Time, if Time was younger and didn’t have as many scars or the facial tattoos. 

“Get off my sword!” Four snarled.

“Then stop attacking me!”

“Then don’t stick yourself to my shadow!”

“Then—huh. I guess I  _ could  _ have done that differently.” The shadow-person stepped off of Four’s sword, hopping lightly to the ground and adjusting his hat. He really  _ did _ look like younger Time, just a more…

_ Evil version,  _ suggested Green. 

_ Shadow version, more like,  _ said Blue. 

_ Four needs to focus, guys!  _ There was Red, always on the lookout for everyone’s well-being. 

“Ahem. Are you listening?”

“Not at the moment. What are you?” Four asked, keeping his sword pointed at the shadow-person just in case. Good thing Legend didn’t have many neighbors, or he might draw some eyes. 

“How rude!” said the shadow-person, crossing his arms. “I’m Dark Link, and—lower that sword, I’m not here to hurt anybody!”

_ Time mentioned fighting a Dark Link over his journey, which would explain his appearance,  _ said Vio. 

“Somehow, I don’t believe you,” said Four coldly. 

“No, really! I’m here to help with…” Dark Link glanced to both sides and leaned in over Four’s blade conspiratorially. “The  _ situation  _ with the Hero of Legend.”

_ What situation? He’s messing with our head, right? _

_ He can’t mean… with Ravio and Marin…? _

_ Did that idiot seriously get the attention of Time’s dark reflection by being OBLIVIOUS? _

“I’m listening, but talk fast,” said Four. “One shout and you’ve got a house full of heroes coming down on your head.”

Dark Link rolled his eyes. “I’m aware. See, the Hero of Legend’s love life is the  _ only  _ roadblock in my plan right now and that’s about the most annoying thing I’ve experienced since getting defeated by a child. I’m here to remove that roadblock.”

“If you hurt Legend-“

“No! That would be a  _ boring  _ ending,” said Dark Link. “I’m too invested now! I need you to help me get close enough to resolve this.”

“And why would I do that?” Four asked, half-expecting a threat. 

“I went to you specifically, Hero of the Four Sword, because I can get something you want in exchange,” said Dark Link. “I don’t suppose _you_ know how to get your Shadow back, whereas _I_ do.”

And with that, Four’s mind exploded into arguments. 

_ He’s lying! We saw Shadow die! _

_ This whole thing is probably a lie. Legend can’t be bad enough to make a dark reflection come out of hiding just to interfere—and why was he even paying enough attention to know any of this? _

_ But what if he’s not lying? Time said he defeated Dark Link, and he’s right here in front of us anyway… think about our other feelings, too. Vio? _

_ If he is lying, I’ll  _ make _ it true. I owe—we owe—Shadow  _ that _ much, at least.  _

Four’s grip shook on his still-raised sword while Dark Link watched him expectantly, but he couldn’t speak or else all his colors’ words would come spilling out. He could barely even think for himself. 

_ No, I have an angle. Dark Link’s “plan” is likely whatever brought all us heroes together in the first place. Let me confirm, and I’ll explain more. _

“Are you what’s dragging all the heroes through time and space?” Four demanded through gritted teeth. 

“Naturally,” said Dark Link. “That’s on hold for now, sadly… are you gonna help or no?”

_ Do you see now? We can get him to stop that.  _

_ Are you actually suggesting, to our FACES, that we rehabilitate Dark Link? You can’t pull a Vio every single time- _

_ Blue, hush and listen! Vio’s got a good idea! _

_ Precisely, Blue. This is our chance to end all of this without a hard battle. _

Blue grumbled incoherently for a moment.  _ You just want our “boyfriend” back. _

_ It wasn’t like that and you know it- _

_ Blue, can it about our—thing—with Shadow. Vio, you know I trust your plans, but are you  _ sure?

_ Are  _ you  _ willing to throw away this chance? _

“I know you’ve got that thing with the Four Sword, but if those clouds up in the sky drift away anytime soon, I’m gonna have to dissolve,” said Dark Link in a bored voice, cutting through the bickering. “Yes or no, hero?”

Four thought about it—not any of the colors, just Four—and inwardly cursed the sheer oddness of his position. “Fine. But I  _ will _ tell the others, and if you double-cross me, I’ll make you regret-“

“Yeah, yeah, regret being born. I’ve heard worse threats than yours,” scoffed Dark Link. “Shake on it?”

“No one gets hurt?”

“No one gets hurt. Until this is over, at least.”

_ At least no one else is here to see this,  _ muttered Blue, though he didn’t object when Four slowly lowered his sword. Naturally, no sooner had the words finished echoing through Four’s head did Legend’s back door open from inside, revealing the sleepy-looking Wind and Warriors.

_ Blue, for the love of Hylia, stop jinxing things! _

Wind only looked confused, but Warriors’ eyes went hard and cold as soon as he focused on Dark Link—who must have looked more threatening than he was, with Four’s sword still out and ready. 

“Wars, wait-“

Dark yelped and tried to dodge, but Warriors tackled him right off the back porch before anyone could do anything. Four grabbed ahold of Wind before he could run back inside, trying to convey with a look that things were more complicated than at first glance—a sentiment which Wind seemed to understand immediately.  _ Now for the  _ other _ sword-happy idiot! _

“Wars, I’m serious,  _ wait  _ before you try to kill him!” Four whisper-shouted, terribly conscious of the house behind him. Warriors stopped, keeping Dark Link pinned to the ground and giving Four an incredulous look. 

“Why the hell not? I’ve faced beings like this one before, they’re  _ not _ pleasant,” said Warriors, who would have been scarier had he not been in his nightclothes still (as it was, his face was still stony). “What were you even doing just  _ standing  _ there?”

“I’ll explain, just—not out here, too open,” said Four in a rush. “Don’t try to kill him yet. Hear him out.”

“I’d appreciate it if you listened to him,” drawled Dark Link, keeping a wary eye on the clouds above. Warriors gave him a withering look.

“Fine. Shed,” he said, standing and dragging Dark Link with him. Four and Wind followed across the yard to Legend’s somewhat-ramshackle garden shed, but neither said a word until Warriors made sure all three of the people he was practically herding were inside. He shut the shed door slowly, carefully, then took a  _ very  _ deep breath. 

“You, shut it. You, explain,” he said, pointing first to Dark Link, then to Four. “Wind, keep an eye on the door for me?”

“Got it.”

“Hey, don’t I get a say in what goes on here?” said Dark Link indignantly.

“Nope,” said all three heroes simultaneously. Dark Link huffed petulantly and hopped up onto a paint can, idly trying to balance on it while Warriors turned to Four, eyebrow raised expectantly. 

_ How do we even BEGIN to explain this one? Guess what, your buddy is in… strong like with—what are we even  _ calling _ those feelings?  _

_ Blue, shush! I’m confused too, but Wars is staring! _

“He offered—let me finish,” said Four, seeing the shift if Warriors’ stance from open to wary. “He offered to bring back someone who means more to me than anyone else. I—on my journey, I met my own version of a Dark Link, just… different.”

Haltingly, Four explained the basics of Dark Link’s deal and Shadow—the antagonism, betrayal, and also the inexplicable friendship he’d grown (but he left out the parts about the magic of the Four Sword and his confusion with how, exactly, to quantify how far his feelings went). Wind looked like he was about to cry when Four’s voice hitched, but Warriors… he was unreadable. 

“I betrayed him, towards the end,” admitted Four brokenly, and he  _ never  _ wanted to see that look on either Warriors’ or Wind’s face again. “And he still  _ died _ for me. I  _ owe  _ him. Even if this Dark is lying, I will  _ make  _ it true myself. I can’t just leave this be. I won’t.”

Even Dark Link was silent after that. 

“If it were me in your place, I’d do the same thing,” said Wind after a moment, glancing at Warriors. “Take the deal, I mean.”

Warriors buried his face in his hands, muttering something that sounded like  _ “why me?” _

“Besides-” Four glanced at Dark Link, who seemed intent on trying to climb the shelves and didn’t appear to be listening anymore. “He’s offering to put a temporary halt to his plans  _ peacefully.  _ If nothing else… he’s a lot easier to stab. Just—please. Not yet. Let me try.”

A beat. 

Then Four found himself caught tight in Warriors’ arms for a hug, joined by Wind a moment later. Relief flooded through all of the colors when they realized:  _ it’s okay. They’re not mad. We’re  _ okay. 

“For your sake, okay,” said Warriors quietly. “And, at this point, we might  _ need  _ shadowy interference to get Legend’s head on straight.”

Four stifled a snort.

“So… is that a yes?”

Four had actually forgotten about Dark Link for the moment, but he sighed and pulled away to face the vexing grin and bloodred eyes anyway. “That’s a yes. What exactly do you plan on doing?”

Dark Link shrugged. “Eh. This and that. Can I hide in your shadow while we’re inside the hou-”

_ “No,”  _ said both Warriors and Four in perfect unison. They glanced at each other in momentary befuddlement, but Wind seemed to have no time for that.

“You can hide in  _ my _ shadow,” he said, shrugging with a slight grin that Four feared. “I have light arrows, by the way. Don’t try anything.”

“I wasn’t  _ going  _ to,” insisted Dark Link, finally dropping from the shelves. “Not on  _ you, _ anyway. You all know where my energy is going.”

Wind opened the shed door and let Dark Link melt into his shadow, shivering slightly before leaving. Four was stopped from following by Warriors’ hand on his shoulder. 

“I was scared for a minute, when you said to hear him out,” said Warriors when Four gave him a quizzical look. “I—I don’t like the idea of traitors. At all.”

“I would  _ never  _ have betrayed any of you-“

“I know,” said Warriors, his eyes softening. “I know. You’re not the type—even if you did back then, I know you wouldn’t now. What you’re doing for Shadow by allying with an enemy is the most loyal thing you could possibly do for someone, and being willing to give it up if we get hurt… I trust your judgement, Four.”

_ Great, we’re really gonna cry if this keeps up! _

Four valiantly chewed on the inside of his cheek so he wouldn’t tear up. “That—that means a lot, Wars.”

_ It’s okay, Blue. You’re as relieved as the rest of us. _

Warriors squinted suddenly. “Am I seeing things, or are your eyes green all of a sudden?”

“You’re seeing things,” Four blustered, hurriedly going to catch up with Wind—who was having a whispered argument with the now-corporeal Dark Link on Legend’s back porch for some reason. 

“You can’t keep looking like teenage Time’s evil twin-“

“This is the only physical body I can use!”

Four blinked, and in an instant, Dark Link no longer looked like a 3D shadow of Time—instead, he looked like… Time. Younger, with no tattoos, slightly longer hair, and the trademark green hero’s clothes, but definitely Time.

“That won’t fly at  _ all,”  _ said Warriors, with the face of someone who knew he was in too deep to back out. 

“Actually, I  _ can  _ fly, thank you very much,” said Dark Link, his over-the-top hand gestures and snarky expression looking so  _ wrong  _ on Time’s body. “This structure is what I got, take it or leave it.”

“Can’t you just hide in Wind’s shadow the entire time?” said Four exasperatedly. Warriors made an agreeing noise beside him. 

“He said it’s too boring,” said Wind. “Which, I mean, I don’t  _ disagree  _ with-“

“Hold on. You said ‘structure’,” said Four, another plan forming in his mind courtesy of Vio. “What about color palette?”

Dark Link opened his mouth, presumably to argue, then closed it with an audible  _ click.  _ “Actually, good idea. How’s this?”

Four blinked again, though it felt… forced, somehow, and suddenly Dark Link had black hair and skin paler than snow, and his tunic was blue. He still looked  _ somewhat  _ like Time—no changing the facial structure, it seemed—but the similarity wasn’t immediate. 

“Better?” said Dark Link acerbically, spreading his hands in an obvious challenge.

“If you have to be outside Wind’s shadow at any point, that’s  _ definitely  _ better than looking like less-traumatized Time,” said Warriors with a heavy sigh. “But you should go back, people are gonna start to wake up-“

Four heard the door creak open before he saw it, heard the trademark irritated sigh and sarcastic drawl before he saw the face they went with—but too late for Dark Link to hide, Legend opened the back door with an impressive case of bedhead and a terrifying sleepy glare.

“Is  _ everybody  _ going to wake up at unreasonable hours today?” he grumbled. “Hey, Four. Glad to see you’re back.”

_ If Legend recognizes Dark, it’s over!  _ Red panicked.  _ We  _ can’t _ explain why he’s here!  _

_ He probably won’t, not with the new look,  _ said Vio, but doubt colored his words. 

“Uh—morning,” managed Four, but Legend had already noticed the new arrival with an even deeper frown. 

“Who’s with you?” he asked. 

_ I knew it. The Goddess hates us.  _

—

Legend woke up warm and drowsy, which was his first indication that something was off. 

Instead of being stiff and somehow too cold in some extremity or another, _ warmth _ surrounded him, cradling his entire body with soft sheets and softer touches. Something warm and alive breathed in the vicinity of his chest, but Legend didn’t want to open his eyes yet. He felt… safe. 

_ Isn’t  _ that  _ a new feeling. _

Eventually the haze of lingering sleep cleared and Legend sleepily cracked one eye open, almost hissing at the light which immediately speared through the curtains with a vengeance. After a moment, he adjusted and looked down.  _ Oh.  _

Sometime in between three in the morning and now, Ravio had shifted closer—his hand still clutched Legend’s under the blanket, but now he was curled right in the circle of Legend’s arms. Only the fluffy top of his head showed, as his face was buried in Legend’s loose shirt. Belatedly, Legend realized the arm that wasn’t gripped between then was drawing Ravio closer. Almost protectively. 

_ When did that happen?  _ He’d never been an unconscious hugger like Sky (or a sleep-deprived Wild). The few times Legend woke up even just  _ touching  _ someone, it had been when Hyrule chose to sleep back-to-back with him at random, or when he set his bedroll too close to Sky. 

Ravio made a sleepy noise, somehow snuggling closer. Legend’s stomach growled faintly.  _ Not right now, he’s still asleep. _

But he got too hungry to stay and wait for Ravio—who, contrary to his usual schedule, didn’t seem to want to wake up—so Legend had to admit defeat and leave the comforting warmth. Somehow. He could  _ totally  _ do that without waking Ravio. The shop opened late on weekends anyways… 

_ Slow… careful…  _ Legend wriggled his hand out of Ravio’s grip first, then withdrew his arm. He froze when another sleepy sigh reached his ears, but when Ravio didn’t move, he took it as just an involuntary reaction. He untangled his legs where the sheets held on with a vengeance and sat up, edging away from Ravio with utmost care. Legend didn’t dare to so much as breathe too loudly until he was out of the room with the door closed behind him and down the stairs. Only  _ then  _ did he allow himself to let out a breath and start thinking about breakfast.

He checked on the still-sick Hyrule and Wild first, neither of whom needed anything. A quick listen to the ambient noise told him that no noise was being made in the side of the attic where the other Links slept, so he had some peace for a while. Marin was either already awake and in the garden, or taking a chance to sleep in. 

_ Peace and quiet,  _ Legend thought with relief, waiting for the water to boil for tea. Did he want toast, or something else-

Then muffled voices reached his ears from the vicinity of the backyard and Legend sighed heavily. Of course, no peace and quiet, not when he actually thought about it in as many words. Hylia just  _ loved  _ him. 

So Legend reluctantly left the teapot to boil and trudged to the back door, ears perked and listening intently. Muffled voices—was that Warriors speaking?

“...but you should go back, people are gonna start to wake up.”

Legend sighed and shoved the door open. If Warriors had brought a  _ guest,  _ he’d politely show them the door—and it seemed he had, though not a stranger. At least,  _ one  _ of the people loudly talking on his porch wasn’t a stranger. 

“Is  _ everybody _ going to wake up at unreasonable hours today?” he asked sardonically, belatedly remembering that Four had been gone for several days. He didn’t bother to wonder why Four had three extra swords tucked under one arm. “Hey, Four. Glad to see you’re back.”

Four said some sort of greeting, but Legend wasn’t really processing. He was busy trying to place the newcomer—why was that face so familiar? He’d never met someone with such strikingly pale skin or dark hair, almost like a child’s drawing with the simplistic coloring. 

_ Huh. I’m kind of mean in the morning.  _

“Who’s with you?” he said eventually, jerking his chin in the direction of the silent black-haired man, who glanced at Warriors, who glanced at Four, who glanced at Wind, who instantly went pale and said nothing. 

Four spoke up first. “This is my friend-“

“Dink!”

Everyone turned to Wind, who was sweating for some reason. “Dink. Four met him at the blacksmith, right? He wanted to see the shop, that’s what Four said.”

“Huh. Alright,” said Legend slowly. “Nice name.”

“Can we really say anything?” Warriors pointed out.

Legend thought about it. “Not really. Shop’s not open yet, Dink, but feel free to come by when it is or whatever.”

_ It’s too early for this,  _ Legend thought, going back inside without another word. Breakfast first, oddly-named friends of Four later—if he even bothered to afford the situation more thought than he already had.

—

_ “What kind of excuse was that?” _

“A  _ quick _ one, stupid! None of  _ you  _ were covering!”

“He’s going to call me  _ Dink  _ to my face!” Dark Link seethed, receding slightly when he saw Four’s hand drift to his sword. 

“Only if you leave Wind’s shadow in front of him,” Warriors pointed out. “So… don’t do that, and you’re fine.”

Dark Link pressed two fingers to the bridge of his nose, exasperated. “Fine. I can work with this. Just… stick close to any three of the lovebirds, and I can-“

_ “You  _ don’t give orders,” said Warriors firmly. Then his mouth twitched. “Dink.”

Only knowing that Legend would likely hear him kept Dark Link from screaming. He settled for glaring at Warriors with all the poison he could muster and melting into Wind’s shadow petulantly. Of course there would be humiliating parts of his journey. No great cosmic storyline without a bit of comic relief, after all. 

_ Mind just going inside the house now?  _ he asked Wind, who twitched at the echoey voice in his head but agreed nonetheless. Dark Link subsided, letting himself ride along—he had some planning to do. 

He refused to talk to the other heroes or emerge when they made hushed explanations to those not in the know (partially because the one bearing the Master Sword seemed a  _ little  _ too eager to stab him before he was told more about the situation). How to best handle the matchmaking issue in a timely manner?

_ Hmmmm…  _

“You’re sure thinking hard,” Wind murmured under his breath at breakfast. 

_ Like your bunch hasn’t been brainstorming.  _

“I mean, true,” admitted Wind, disguising his words behind chewing up a sizable helping of scrambled eggs. He glanced down at the shadow his arm left on the table, unknowingly making “eye contact” with Dark Link. “But I can’t hear the others in my head.”

_ Whatever. You seem oddly on board with letting me take part,  _ said Dark Link. Of course, there was always at least one “good guy” who leaned more towards gray morality. He just hadn’t been expecting the fourteen-year-old to be that guy. 

_ “Anything _ for one of them,” murmured Wind. 

_ Classic hero, that,  _ said Dark Link with the mental equivalent of a sigh.  _ Working with all of you is gonna be nauseating…  _

“Then why not just sneak in to cause mischief?”

_ In case you haven’t noticed, my presence in somebody’s shadow is noticeable. It’s too much of a hassle to try and replace my light reflection, he’s… scary.  _

(Said light reflection had heard about one sentence of what was going on and promptly left the house for the day, stating “I can’t see this, and therefore, I’m not responsible for whatever you end up exploding” on his way out. He seemed to trust Warriors to handle things).

_ That,  _ Dark Link continued,  _ and this option is more interesting.  _

A classic gambit, Dark Link mused to himself. Hero and villain, joining forces for the greater good—the greater good of continuing his master plan, anyway. He’d spent  _ entirely _ too long on that custom dungeon for the heroes to skip out over someone’s love life. 

_ I could make a novel out of this…  _

Wind snorted, which led Twilight to assume he was choking and caused one of those flurries of “you okay?” “I’m fine, wrong pipe” conversations that most group meals seemed to contain. Dark Link examined the occupants of the table through the odd greyscale vision that came with hiding in someone’s shadow, privately cursing his position looking up from the table. He couldn’t even see any of the lovebirds, just Wind’s arm and part of Twilight’s profile if he strained. 

Privately, Dark Link went over all his potential plans he’d spent all night coming up with. Being a dark reflection had its advantages—he didn’t need very much sleep. He had  _ plenty  _ of ideas, but he’d need to make sure Wind was in the right position to execute them… 

_ Say, once you’re done with this, try to stick close to the lovebirds,  _ he told Wind.

“Sure,” grunted Wind, hiding the movement of his lips and sound of his words with a sip of water. Not long later, the young hero was moving about—but  _ not  _ with Legend, Marin, or Ravio.

_ Ahem. _

“Shush, I got something to do first,” insisted Wind, his lips barely moving. Once he was out of earshot of the other heroes, in Legend’s living room, he relaxed. Dark Link raised just an approximation of his face out of the shadow, making note of the feverish heroes sleeping on each couch.

“You have magic, right?” Wind asked carefully. “They’re—it’s just—if you really want to help us…”

_ What makes you think a dark reflection can heal?  _ Dark Link asked right back, feeling not a whit of sympathy for either sickly hero (he was lying, anyway—if he  _ really  _ tried, it might be possible). They’d get better eventually. Heroes didn’t die of mere  _ illness,  _ that would make for a bad story.  _ Besides, the flower they managed to rub all over their skins is resistant to healing magic. Why do you think potions don’t work? _

Wind didn’t respond for a moment, though Dark Link had been expecting either something snarky or ridiculously sentimental. Eventually, he just said “alright” and made a beeline for the shop. Dark Link didn’t pay attention to whatever excuse he gave Ravio for being there, too busy puzzling over the monosyllabic response.

“Didn’t that friend of Four’s want to stop by?”

_ There he is, perfect timing. _

“Yeah, but I think something came up,” bluffed Wind. Legend shrugged, apparently buying it, and drifted over to where Ravio was struggling with a hefty magic axe.

_ Ahem. _

“What?” Wind hissed, keeping an eye on Legend’s progress helping Ravio hang display weapons.

_ Stand near them, I can’t do much on the opposite end of the room. _

“Promise no one gets hurt.”

_ I already did that! If anyone gets hurt, it puts a damper on the flow of things, you see.  _

Wind sighed but did as told, pretending to rearrange a set of minorly-enchanted jewelry nearby Dark Link’s targets. A moment of concentration passed by, slow and almost tangible, before Dark Link was able to reach out. 

To the average onlooker, Wind’s shadow appeared to simply stretch for no apparent reason, one of its hazy arms extending towards where Legend stood. It looped and wriggled as it went, twisting around until-

“Yaugh!”

_ “Really?”  _ Wind hissed, though he was poorly hiding a smile as he did. 

“Wind, that better not have been you!” Legend spat, though his irritation wasn’t quite so biting when he was hissing while being held up awkwardly by Ravio. It almost looked like they had been dancing, and Dark Link was  _ sure  _ Ravio’s face had gone bright red under his hood. 

“What? No! You must have tripped on a floorboard,” protested Wind, subtly mashing his heel in the center of his shadow. Dark Link didn’t feel it, but he chose not to inform his ride of that. 

For  _ some  _ reason, Legend didn’t react to being cradled in someone’s arms like a fainting lover. He just stood with a huff, thanked Ravio casually, and went on about his business. Dark Link really shouldn’t have been surprised—he’d known from going back and watching what his surveillance spells had seen that this would be no easy task—but  _ everyone  _ got flustered at that!

_ Eh, first try. I’ll get this…  _

“I feel like I’m gonna get blamed a lot.”

_ I mean, probably, but isn’t it worth the headache ending? _

Wind had to concede that point. So, Dark Link started mentally going over his list—and as the day wore on, he started mentally  _ shredding  _ that list as well. 

Tripping into each other’s arms: ineffective on all counts. The most he achieved was making Legend confused when Marin was left red as her hair and unable to speak, which…  _ perhaps  _ was a victory, but Wind was too busy hiding from Legend’s wrath to have a conversation about it. 

“You could really hurt somebody doing that, you know!”

_ Like I said, bad storyline. I don’t want that. Next plan! _

Locked in a closet: not only did Wind figure out that jabbing his shadow with a light arrow actually _hurt_ Dark Link, nothing even _happened_ besides Legend picking the lock in five minutes and Ravio looking like he’d rather die than be stuck in such close quarters again. At least Legend looked confused again, though it was hard to tell what his expression was when Wind was hiding behind a bookshelf.

“Wind, can’t you rein him in a little-“

_ Tell Twilight I’m an artistic genius and Legend’s just too oblivious for it. Tell him. Those exact words, Wind.  _

“I’ll jab him again, don’t worry.”

_ What did I JUST say- _

Again and again Dark Link dug into what he knew about various romance stories, begrudgingly accepting input from the heroes by lunchtime (after a disaster involving pet names). But still—nothing! His plans were typically drawn-out, but this one was  _ not  _ meant to be. 

_ I don’t GET it! How can one person be this bad? _

“He’s yelling again?” 

Wind sighed and nodded at Twilight’s question, keeping his arm perpendicular to the wall so that his shadow fell on something other than the floor and could “see”. Dark Link would have appreciated the gesture had he not been busying ranting about the lack of functional brain cells in Legend’s head. 

_ Tell him I’m no longer wondering why Legend leapt through my first portal without a second thought! He’s an idiot! _

“Hey, only  _ we  _ get to call Legend stupid,” said Wind defensively. 

“Keep your voice down, I’m not sure how much sound carries from up here,” Twilight cautioned, glancing towards the attic stairs. Sky said nothing from his spot idly carving a tiny piece of wood, but he did make an agreeing noise. “Dink-“

_ Tell him I’ll reach out to that crystal of his and activate it if he keeps this up. _

Wind relayed the message and Twilight paled, much to the confusion of his fellow two heroes.

“Fine.  _ Dark Link,”  _ he said through gritted teeth. “What makes you think your plans will work at all?”

Dark Link surged from Wind’s shadow, nearly tripping over someone’s bedroll as he did—and really,  _ why _ did the heroes leave their stuff all over their side of the attic willy-nilly? “They  _ should!  _ By all laws of logic, he should have at  _ least  _ noticed their faces by now—but no! Of course not! This makes no  _ sense,  _ thematically. The Goddesses are fools.”

“I wouldn’t argue with that last statement, but it doesn’t exactly go with the rest of what you said,” said Twilight. Sky frowned at the comment about the Goddesses, but still said nothing.

“They’re in charge of how this great cosmic tale goes, aren’t they?” said Dark Link, waving his hands about as if trying to swat a fly. “This never-ending cycle we’re all stuck in, no? The  _ one  _ time I thought someone else pushes the buttons—me, of course—and no,  _ you’re _ all unpredictable about it.  _ Ugh.” _

With that, he melted right back into Wind’s shadow to stew, almost missing the confused glance thrown between heroes—almost.

“Come back out, I have a question,” said Wind a moment later. Dark Link stuck his head out of the patch of shadow that lay against the wall begrudgingly, one eyebrow raised. “How come you keep calling everything that goes on around us just a story?”

“Because it  _ is,  _ weren’t you listening?” scoffed Dark Link. “I’ve seen every timeline in the abstract, little pirate. I’ve seen what created me and beings like me, and I’ve seen things that would make your mortal minds snap like a stale cracker. The universe is a lot more organized than you think. Everything’s just a  _ story,  _ a tale for the gods and goddesses in charge of it all to tell each other over tea and laugh. I’m the villain in most of yours… so why shouldn’t I get to write it for once?”

“Hold on, let me see if I’m interpreting this right,” said Twilight slowly. “You brought us all together across timelines… you infected hordes of monsters to make them unbelievably deadly… you threatened our lives with this quest—for the sake of making a  _ story?” _

“See, he gets it,” said Dark Link, briefly letting his arm out of Wind’s shadow to point at Twilight. “The timeline’s biggest crossover! All the heroes against their worst enemy—themselves! Technically. There haven’t actually been too many beings like me, and I’m the most powerful.”

Silence. Dark Link wasn’t sure why that statement had been so off-putting. 

“I think you forgot that we’re  _ people,  _ too,” said Sky after a long moment. “Not just heroes.”

“Pfft, I know  _ that,” _ said Dark Link dismissively. “Loves and losses and family, I get it. The heroes always get those at some point, and the villains don’t, I’ve seen it all—and I don’t even  _ hate _ you all for it. Fascinating heroes, all of you. You’re welcome. All I want out of this little deal is for my plan to actually  _ continue  _ so we can all see the story’s end.”

He receded into Wind’s shadow again to continue planning, this time without any intention of coming out again for a time. Let the others brainstorm without his input—plan Z would have to come into effect soon, and Dark Link  _ knew  _ it wouldn’t fly with the heroes unless he had a good enough excuse. 

—

“It’s not like I  _ never  _ go on supply runs, he wouldn’t be suspicious, but how come  _ you _ want to go?”

_ I’m trying to keep Legend in my sight in case I get another idea,  _ said Dark Link.  _ Also, Marin’s with him. Third wheel time, little pirate. _

Wind sighed and stuffed the rest of the cookie he’d stolen from Warriors’ stash in his mouth before abandoning his game of solitaire to go tag along. He convinced Legend without much trouble, putting Dark Link in the  _ perfect  _ position to enact his plan. 

After all, he could afford to spare a Bokoblin or two.

“You keep mumbling,” Wind said under his breath, trailing slightly behind Legend and Marin on the road.

_ It’s called brainstorming.  _

Wind sighed and caught up with his companions, who had begun an animated conversation about the supply list. 

“I keep  _ telling  _ him we can just  _ find  _ ingredients for that ‘trail mix’ concoction, but apparently that’s not good enough,” said Legend, gesturing wildly to the paper clutched in one hand. Marin leaned slightly closer to get a better look, shifting the basket on her arm as she did so.

“Link, forgive me,” she said, “but is your family really  _ that  _ good at foraging for plants that aren’t harmful?”

Legend opened his mouth to protest, then closed it. “Good point. But still, Warriors is ridiculous—wait, who put  _ flour  _ on here, I know we’re not out of that-“

Dark Link tuned out of the conversation, focusing on keeping his activity secret from Wind and trying to track his little surprise. Not much longer… though it would have to be quick, before their little grocery party reached an area more populated than the empty road. 

_ Just another moment—oop. _

“What?” Wind hissed, suddenly checking his surroundings suspiciously. 

“Say something, Wind?”

“Uh—nope!” said Wind, waving Legend off. 

_ Relax, all you need to do is sit back and wait a moment,  _ said Dark Link, sensing his monsters nearby.  _ If things get too hairy, THEN step in.  _

Wind had no chance to respond, though he was clearly about to—the charging monster wielding a spiked club cut him off rather effectively. The monsters from the Era of Wilds were  _ so  _ fun to play with. 

“Look out!” Wind cried, scrambling for his sword against his foe. Dark Link made sure the monster held back, keeping another eye on the second Bokoblin—this one aimed straight for Legend and Marin. 

_ Come on, play hero- _

_ “That’s  _ your plan?” Wind spat, parrying a blow. He was moving too fast for Dark Link to see what was going on, but after he dispatched the Bokoblin and took a split-second breather, Legend’s situation became more clear.

_ Wait, don’t move yet!  _

Legend wasn’t fighting—his sword was out, but he seemed more concerned with keeping Marin behind one arm and shielded, despite how hard it made fighting the Bokoblin. Wind, unfortunately, had  _ no  _ eye for romance and tried to charge forward to help.

_ None of that, it’s finally working! _

Dark Link might have been limited while stuck traveling in someone’s shadow—daylight was  _ so  _ annoying—but there were still things he could influence, like the movements of whoever was letting him ride along. So he did. 

Wind stiffened and dropped like a stone, suddenly unable to move his legs the right way. His mind fought like a tiger against Dark Link’s influence, rapidly draining his magic while Legend continued to defend Marin. Only when the Bokoblin had fallen—surprisingly, Marin got in quite a bit of damage just before that by kicking its teeth in—did Dark Link let go. He hadn’t grabbed Wind’s  _ mind,  _ just his limbs, so he figured nothing would come of it. 

He miscalculated. Just a bit, but he miscalculated. 

Exhausted, Dark Link couldn’t quite track the rest of the trip—only when Wind jabbed a light arrow into his shadow again did he come back to full consciousness.

“Get out.”

_ I didn’t know teenagers could sound  _ that _ cold. _

Dark Link stepped out of Wind’s shadow, once more in Legend’s attic—except this time, Warriors and Four were the other Links there with him. It was Warriors he noticed first, though, as it was quite hard to ignore someone leveling a sword between his eyes. 

“What. Exactly. Did you just pull?” Warriors asked, his voice deceptively light. 

“Just a bit of a damsel-in-distress scenario, that’s all!” protested Dark Link, hurriedly backing into the wall. The sword followed him, close enough to keep him stuck. “Wasn’t expecting the damsel in question to kick someone’s teeth in, but—watch the pointy end!”

“You—I dunno what you did, but I couldn’t move my body,” argued Wind. “What  _ was _ that?”

“Did you possess him?” Warriors growled. Four said nothing, though he  _ was  _ staring blankly at the wall—seemed his curse from the Four Sword was acting up. 

“Not his  _ mind,”  _ said Dark Link. He addressed Wind next: “You would have interfered. I had to see if the plan would work or not, so I just grabbed control of your limbs for a moment. No ill intent on my part!”

“You could have just  _ told  _ me about it!” Wind protested.

“No, don’t insinuate that getting Legend and Marin attacked by monsters was a good plan,” said Warriors, lowering the sword slightly to be exasperated in Wind’s direction. He seemed satisfied that Dark Link meant no actual harm to Wind, if still upset about the Bokoblin thing—which made no  _ sense.  _

“Alright, alright, perhaps not the  _ best _ idea from me,” said Dark Link. “You know what it  _ really  _ was? My  _ last  _ plan. I’m out of ideas! Why didn’t they at  _ least  _ look into each other’s eyes dreamily or something?”

Each hero stared at him for a moment. 

“Because they just got  _ attacked?”  _ Wind said slowly. 

“He literally shielded her with his own body! I’m just cursed,” said Dark Link with as much exasperation as he could summon. “The Goddesses can tell I’m trying to steal their thunder-“

“Dark, you  _ threatened  _ their  _ lives-“  _ began Warriors, but Dark Link cut him off.

“Those monsters weren’t even infected, I’ll have you know-“

“That’s not the point,” said Warriors. “You can’t just expect everything to go like a storybook, you know. We’re-“

“People, not characters, I’ve heard the statement,” said Dark Link, rolling his eyes. “I know! You just happen to be  _ legendary  _ people. Legendary people don’t die to a measly Bokoblin.”

“Don’t argue with him,” said Wind, holding up a hand to stop Warriors. “He didn’t hurt me, Legend and Marin are fine, and he’s  _ not  _ going to understand what’s wrong with all the story statements.”

Dark Link wanted to argue, but he couldn’t say he thought Wind was wrong. None of them knew the lengths he’d gone to, or the sheer number of times their status as hero had saved them—normal people didn’t have all the wacky adventures. Side characters would never have survived. This was a hero story, and hero stories never had unheroic incidents.

He was right. Of  _ course  _ he was. So… why did Wind’s statement still resonate oddly?

Wind turned back to Dark Link. “Just go back in my shadow and behave-“

“No.”

As one, everyone turned to Four, who had finally refocused on Dark Link—and he looked much better unfocused. Less scary. 

“You stick to mine,” he said, stepping forward and gently pushing Warriors’ sword aside. Dark Link preferred having the  _ sword  _ to keep him pinned. “I’m going on the roof to think. You’re coming with me so I can keep an eye on you.”

“You refused rather vehemently before,” Dark Link pointed out.

Four’s eyes flashed blue. “I’m used to having someone there. It’ll be easy to make sure you don’t try anything. Unless you mean to break the deal—get in my shadow.”

Dark Link could tell there were only two ways out of the situation: get in Four’s shadow, or fight. He chose the former, melting down with little effort and wondering  _ why  _ he suddenly felt a lot less sure about the whole plan.

—

To the casual onlooker, Four appeared to just be sitting on the roof and staring at nothing. With the stony face and unmoving limbs, he might as well have been a statue. 

Unfortunately, his mind was the exact opposite of still and calm. 

_ He tried to possess Wind! We have to kill him! _

_ Blue, you know we’re  _ all _ protective of Wind, calm down a little! There’s still the matter of the consequences if Dark Link decides the deal isn’t worth it and finds some other way to get us moving—that, and Wind said himself it wasn’t full possession. Dark’s an idiot with few morals, but no one was actually hurt. He didn’t break the deal. _

_ You sound like Vio.  _

_ So that’s a bad thing now? I agree with Green. There’s still the matter of Shadow, and Legend- _

_ I get the brunt of whatever-it-is, you know.  _

The colors went quiet for a blessed moment, waiting for Red to finish. 

_ I know we all share the—the feelings, whatever they are—but I’ve got the brunt of it, so let me talk about it for once. Shadow means more to us than the majority of the people we’ve met. I want him back so badly it  _ hurts  _ like someone left a dagger in my heart every time he’s mentioned—but I care about Wind too. I care about the other Links. They’re our brothers at this point.  _

_ You’re wondering if we should risk eight lives for one,  _ said Vio. 

_ I’m wondering what we can do to have our cake and eat it too,  _ said Red.  _ But… if we can’t… we have to keep the other heroes safe no matter what. Trying to redeem Dark Link was a good idea, but how much longer until he gets impatient and just curses Legend or something? Warriors held back for  _ us.  _ We need better proof that this won’t backfire, or else…  _

Four’s shadow stirred slightly and he glanced at it, noting that Dark Link appeared to be mirroring his hunched position. Thinking. He couldn’t exit Four’s shadow in the daylight, but he  _ could  _ talk—so why wasn’t the jabbery reflection bothering?

“I’m surprised you haven’t said more to defend yourself,” he mumbled. 

His shadow stirred, shifting around on the rooftop to “face” Four.  _ I’m at a loss for words. Congratulations, this is a rare reaction.  _

_ I don’t like hearing him in our head,  _ Blue growled.  _ It’s—it’s too much like- _

_ Isn’t that the exact reason we made sure he stayed in  _ our _ shadow?  _ Vio pointed out. 

_ Doesn’t mean I like it.  _

“I’ll treasure this moment,” said Four flatly.

Dark Link shifted slightly. Four could see nothing of his expression, but his movements were sluggish, thoughtful.  _ I… could make it up to you all. I crossed a line. For all I love to play the villain—well. Technically, my cosmic duty is over and done with. I don’t consider you all enemies. I shouldn’t have gone that far for the sake of a failing plan.  _

“Go back to making it up to us,” said Four, intrigued despite himself. 

_ Wild and Hyrule. They’re sick, correct? I’ve thought about it a bit… that plant’s a nasty one, especially to healing spells, but my magic’s fairly unique,  _ said Dark Link.  _ I’m beginning to think I’m the deus ex machina- _

“The what?”

_ Would you listen, I’m trying to be repentant! I might be what miraculously heals them just in time, hear? I’ll heal them, you keep the deal going. How’s that sound? _

Four stared down at his shadow. His colors, for once, had gone silent in the face of news. “It  _ sounds  _ good, but can you do it?”

_ Probably. Are they getting better without me? _

Four had to admit they weren’t, at least not visibly. Even if they  _ would  _ recover naturally, which Legend insisted was soon—it hurt. Four  _ knew  _ it hurt. It hurt him, too, watching the two free spirits of the Links bedridden. 

_ We’re doing this, aren’t we?  _ Blue was feeling talkative, it seemed. 

Green sighed heavily.  _ Yes. Might as well.  _

_ Can I stab him if it goes wrong? _

_ Of course. _

“You’ve got yourself another deal,” said Four. “I’ll vouch for you off the roof.”

Dark Link was oddly silent as Four stood, stretched, and made for the roof’s edge—but he spoke up just before Four’s foot touched the ladder.  _ Thanks, I suppose. For the trust.  _

“You’re welcome,” said Four. “I guess.”

—

“Are you… painting?”

Warriors glanced up, so focused on what he was doing that he only recognized Legend’s voice a moment after it reached his ears. “Yep. I needed something to do with my hands.”

Legend moved around from behind him and shot a quick look at the canvas, which had only just been started but would  _ hopefully _ be a good picture of Legend’s garden. As it was, Warriors had to admit that it was more blob than picture. “It, uh, looks good?”

“Alright, what do you want?”

“I… want advice,” huffed Legend, avoiding eye contact and crossing his arms like he wasn’t sure what else to do with them. 

_ That _ broke Warriors’ focus. He put his paintbrush down carefully to give Legend his undivided attention. A glance around confirmed that the back patio was empty, and the sound of an irate shout from the dining room told him that the card game Wind had proposed not long ago was in full swing and would definitely hold everyone’s attention for a while (hopefully without any physical fights). “Fire away.”

“How do you tell the difference between people wanting to be friends and—the, uh, the other thing,” said Legend. He saw the look on Warriors’ face and quickly added, “I figured  _ you’d _ know, being such a notorious player.”

“I’m ignoring the insult for now. Why ask  _ me?”  _ asked Warriors, confused and also trying mightily to hide his excitement.  _ Wait until Ravio and Marin hear about this- _

“Four’s acting strange, Wild and Hyrule are out of it, Sky would start waxing poetic about his Zelda, Wind’s fourteen years old, so he can’t help, and Twilight looks like someone killed his horse whenever you mention romance,” said Legend, rattling off his list in a practiced manner. “Time would just make the  _ face. _ You know the one. I don’t want a pseudo-parent, I want someone I  _ know _ will just give it to me straight. You know what, I can just go-“

“No, wait, I’ll help,” said Warriors hastily, recognizing the signs of someone who would run in Legend. “I’m not sure where to start, but I’ll help. It’s…”

He hesitated. Legend had been wrong—Warriors had about as much experience with  _ actual _ relationships as a rock—but he did, at least,  _ know  _ the difference between friendship and romance. Explaining it…

“Why haven’t you asked Marin or Ravio, then? I didn’t hear their names on your list,” he said instead, hoping to get time to think by deviating the conversation. It worked. 

“I—none of your business,” said Legend huffily.

“If I’m gonna give you advice, you have to tell me what for. Specifically. I can keep secrets,” said Warriors, mentally taking notes for when he would spill every single detail to his squad of matchmakers. 

Legend stared at Warriors. Warriors stared right back. 

“Fine,” said Legend after a long moment. “I cave. They’re the reason I’m asking, now would you  _ please _ answer?”

Warriors considered his next words for a moment, mind whirling. “Well… from what I know, romance isn’t  _ too _ different from friendship. In a lot of cases it isn’t even  _ more  _ intense exactly, just a different kind. The best way to really tell is to just ask the person in question.”

_ “Not _ doing that,” said Legend vehemently, but it seemed more reflex than anything else—he bit his lip right after and said nothing more. 

“Fine. Then…” Warriors hummed, tapping the handle of his paintbrush against his chin. “These  _ hypothetical _ people—or this  _ hypothetical _ person—probably tries to spend a lot of time with you alone. They could be really touchy-“

“I don’t see why romance makes someone annoyed.”

“Touchy as in  _ physically affectionate,  _ Legend,” said Warriors, holding back a budding insult when he remembered his own notes on how badly Legend needed a hug. “Not even big things, like hugs, just… I dunno, brushing their hand against yours, standing really close. They’re trying to both gauge your reaction and stick close for the sake of being close.”

“That sounds entirely too complicated. Just  _ say  _ something, Goddess…”

Warriors had to bite his lip to prevent himself from laughing. “Well, that’s how I understand it, anyway. Helpful?”

“Uh… I guess,” said Legend. He shifted awkwardly on his feet for a moment before adding, “Thanks.”

He disappeared back into the house a moment later, leaving before Warriors could say anything about the gratitude. 

_ That actually sounded sincere,  _ Warriors thought, blinking at the spot where Legend used to be.  _ Maybe he’s… getting a little better. For his sake, I hope so.  _

Unfortunately, it seemed the universe wasn’t going to let him finish painting. Four dropped from the ladder up to Legend’s roof less than five minutes later, waving his arms and attempting to stammer out words, and fear instantly shot through Warriors like lightning.

“Did he escape? Are you hurt? Do I need to-“

“I’m still  _ here, _ calm down,” said Four’s shadow, which had suddenly grown an extra head. Warriors wasn’t sure if seeing Dark Link’s head stick up out of the ground was unnerving or funny, but it was certainly  _ something.  _ “I’m, eh… making it up to you all, I suppose. I don’t actually have any hard feelings-“

“He says he might be able to cure Wild and Hyrule,” said Four in a rush. “Heavy on the might, but they aren’t really getting better otherwise.”

Warriors hesitated. Could he really trust a Dark with the lives of his brothers?

“Look,” said Dark Link with a heavy sigh. “I can understand not trusting me.  _ I  _ wouldn’t trust me. But my only interests lie in getting this party of heroes back on the road, not actually  _ killing  _ any of you. That’s not an inter—that’s not what I want to do here.”

He had clearly stopped himself from calling it an interesting story, which intrigued Warriors more than a bit. It occurred to him that Dark Link could easily have outright tried to kill them at any point, since he’d clearly had no issue waltzing right up to the house—it seemed just getting them to carry out his plan really  _ was  _ his only goal. 

“One hint of hurting them and you’re on the business end of my sword,” he told Dark Link, who sighed again.

“I figured as much. Come on, get me to them.”

Warriors went to open the door for Four and immediately bumped into Marin, because of course his afternoon was just going to go like that. 

“Sorry, busy,” he said, briefly holding the door (Warriors was in a hurry, but he wasn’t an  _ animal).  _

“I can tell,” said Marin, edging through the door and giving him an odd look. Warriors paid it no mind as he let Four through and shut the door—he wanted to see Wild and Hyrule awake again. 

—

Marin’s favorite part of each day—besides whatever time she managed to spend with Link—was  _ easily _ tending the garden in the backyard. Link had actually been the one to start it, but Ravio was the one who picked out half the plants, including tomatoes and carrots (the latter was some kind of inside joke with Ravio and Link, for whatever reason—Marin chose not to question why any mention of rabbits made Link start groaning, figuring it was probably Ravio’s fashion sense). 

At any rate, it was peaceful in the garden. Link’s family rarely ventured into it, and Ravio knew she liked the peace, so Marin could usually count on at least a bit of time alone. She hummed to the plants as she went through with the watering can, the words to the tune playing soundlessly in her mind. 

_ Sleepers wake, dreams will fade, although we cling fast…  _

Privately, she allowed herself to miss the accompanying ocarina. 

_ Was it real? What we saw? I believe… _

Someone coughed, making Marin fumble the watering can and halt her song. She spun to see Link, who quite suddenly looked like a rabbit caught by a hunter—wide eyes and perfectly still limbs.

“Sorry,” he said, his voice sounding stilted. “Didn’t, uh, mean to startle you.”

“Oh, you’re alright, really! I was just focused,” said Marin, going to retrieve the dropped watering can. Link was there just as she reached it, taking hold of the handle just before she did.

Their hands brushed, sending sparks through Marin’s skin and a sudden urge to melt into the ground through her brain.  _ Focus, Marin! _

“Sorry,” said Link again, recoiling his hand like the watering can had burned him. “I just—how’s the garden?”

Marin was far from stupid, even if Link standing so close made roughly half of her brain short-circuit.  _ He’s deflecting… but why? _

“Coming along nicely, if you ask me,” she said, choosing to let Link off the hook. “I’m actually doing a bit of an experiment out here.”

Link tilted his head to one side curiously. “Experiment?”

“Well, I was reading one of Ravio’s books on magical songs a few weeks ago…”

Marin launched into a ramble about her attempts to judge how different plants reacted to different magical songs—so far, with interesting results—and ended up tugging Link along with her, gesturing to each one of her test subjects as she waxed poetic about the various effects she’d been able to garner. Doing the same around Ravio meant an avid listener for all of two minutes—she did consider him a friend, but the guy had a terrible attention span—but Link stayed attentive through it all. He even asked  _ questions.  _

“Funny thing, but sometimes songs have different effects than you’d think,” said Marin after about ten minutes of this, dragging him over to a patch of nightshade she’d been trying to cultivate in the back end of the garden. “Like these. Weird plants, these, but their reaction to my Ballad is even stranger.”

“Nightshade? Somehow, I’m not surprised you’re planting poison in my backyard,” said Link wryly. 

“It was  _ already here, _ I just helped it grow,” scoffed Marin. “I suppose if you don’t want to hear more-“

“No, I do.”

Marin blinked at that and took a moment to compose herself—Link really was standing  _ quite  _ close. “The, erm, the Ballad—most plants get a little more robust after I use that one on them repeatedly, but for whatever reason, nightshade doesn’t. It just sort of… hm. ‘Wilts’ isn’t the right description, but it’s a different reaction.”

“Like it’s falling asleep?” Link mused, twisting one of his many rings thoughtfully. 

Marin snapped her fingers victoriously. “That’s it! Yes, that’s precisely what happens. Odd, since the Ballad is an… awakening song.”

She stumbled over the last words, remembering the last time she’d heard someone else play the song. Judging by the slightest hint of grief in Link’s eyes… he was too. 

“It always sounded like a lullaby when you sang it, though,” he said a moment later, not a hint of the grief showing through in his voice. “The island’s instruments made it an awakening song.  _ You _ made it something soothing.”

Marin  _ knew  _ her ears were red and thanked every god and goddess above that her hair hid the tips. “You’re sweet, but-“

“No, really,” said Link sincerely. 

_ He doesn’t know what he’s even  _ doing _ oh, Wind Fish—think of an out think of an out- _

“Well, I’ve gotten better at songwriting since then,” she blustered, changing the topic before Link could notice her start to panic (though a part of her  _ knew _ he wouldn’t). “Turns out songs I make myself tend to be magic by default. Who knew?”

“Magic songs, huh?” Link’s eye had that  _ gleam  _ in it which Marin previously associated only with Ravio around a new item. She stifled a giggle at the mental comparison. “Like what?”

Marin wracked her brains and could only think of one song, which she hesitated to share with Link specifically—but the conversation had paused for too long by the time she had to admit defeat, so she continued. “Your carrots especially like one of them. The lyrics aren’t complete yet”—a lie, they had been done since the moment she thought of the song—“but I have the melody. The carrots like slower songs.”

Link tilted his head to one side curiously. “Can I hear it?”

_ Wind Fish, I can’t! If I slip up and he figures out why I wrote that song- _

“Sure! I was already warmed up anyway.”

_ I can never say no to those eyes…  _

Marin knew it was hopeless to not let the lyrics run through her mind as she hummed a couple bars nervously to get ready. She only hoped they wouldn’t run right off her tongue in the process, or else… or else Link would know she’d written them because of him, an attempt to understand how his mind could have changed in between when they met and how Ravio described his current attitude. An attempt to feel emotions that weren’t hers so she could  _ know _ him. 

Despite herself, Marin couldn’t help the burst of pride when Link’s eyes slowly got wider in awe as she sang. 

But, of course, she slipped up towards the end. It seemed the lyrics  _ wanted  _ to be heard. 

_ I’ve got a tight grip on reality _

_ But I can't let go of what's in front of me here _

_ I know you're leaving in the morning, when you wake up _

_ Leave me with some kind of proof it's not a dream…  _

She hardly noticed the faint change in Link’s eyes, the slightest touch of  _ does that mean…? _

_ You are, the only exception _

_ You are, the only exception _

_ You are, the only exception…  _

Somehow, they’d gotten closer while Marin sang. Her voice got lower, softer, quieter, until only Link could have heard it. 

_ And I’m on my way to believing…  _

Marin almost stopped, a lyric change occurring to her when Link’s awed eyes held her own for just a little too long. 

_ And I’m on my way to believing… again.  _

A beat of silence passed after Marin let the song and its magic fade. The carrots had indeed perked up a bit, but Link wasn’t paying attention to them anymore, and neither was she. Link was close enough to touch —but she dared not try to cross the gap which felt miles wide instead of inches. 

“I…” Link coughed into his fist, seemingly regaining speech. “I liked it. You said you’re still working on the lyrics?”

“I did say that, didn’t I…” said Marin, temporarily absorbed by his lips.  _ Don’t look at those, look him in the eye—no, that’s worse.  _

“They’re incredible so far,” said Link earnestly. “I’m not a songwriter, but I’d be happy to help if you need it.”

Marin giggled, breaking from her one-sided staring contest. “You’re sweet, I’ll make sure to ask.”

But the sweet, rare smile faded slightly then, and Link seemed to remember something. “Oh, yeah—I wanted to ask you a question.”

“You’ve asked quite a few already,” teased Marin, attempting to cover the rising panic with a grin and a joking wave of her hand.  _ What question—focus!  _

Link didn’t say anything for a moment, appearing to gather his thoughts. “I… well, it’s a little—I don’t know how to phrase this.”

Marin’s heart promptly ignored her resolve to stay calm and began attempting to hammer straight through her chest. She unconsciously shifted her feet, bringing her own face just that much closer to Link’s. It was funny, almost—when they’d met, he had barely had an inch of height on her. Now she had to look up more than a bit to meet his eyes. 

“You can ask,” she said softly. “I won’t judge if your wording is a little off.”

“I know. You’re not the type,” he said with equal softness, part of that treasured smile coming back. “I…”

“Actions speak louder than words, especially with you,” suggested Marin, somehow finding the burst of clarity she needed.

“Well—yeah, you know me well,” said Link.

Was he leaning closer, or were they both?

“If you can’t say it, you can show me,” said Marin. Her heart still pounded, so loud she was  _ sure  _ Link could hear—but he didn’t react. 

Link swallowed. “Well, I just—uh-”

“LEGEND!”

Marin reeled back, only prevented from falling by Link’s reflexive grip around her waist. He helped her stand and let go, but she swore the feeling of his arms there remained.

“What?” he drawled at Wind, who looked to practically be  _ vibrating  _ with news as he hopped from foot to foot excitedly on the porch, pointing inside with soundless jabs for a moment before speaking.

“Wild’s awake! So’s Hyrule! Like,  _ coherently _ and everything! You gotta come see!”

_ “What? _ Move it, let me in-”

And then Link was gona, darting inside faster than Marin’s eyes could follow. She didn’t blame him, really—in fact, she was about to do the same so she could properly meet Wild—but at the same time…

“Were you two busy? Sorry,” said Wind, calming down enough to speak without stammering.

“Not really,” said Marin with a sigh. “Our conversation had just ended, as a matter of fact.”

Wind frowned slightly, but accepted her answer for the time being and made a beeline for the front of the house. Marin halted with her hand on the doorknob, glancing back at the garden. 

The carrots, at least, were fine. Even if she really wasn’t… 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (song lyrics are from “The Only Exception” by Paramore, aka the most Legend song I’ve ever heard)
> 
> If you want to steal my kneecaps for the Almost But Not Quite scene I’m sorry to say they’re taken but my kidneys are free game


	4. The Braincell Arrives

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the grand finale of the fic, Wild and Hyrule are now miraculously (albeit reluctantly) healed—which means, of course, that the heroes are now free to keep traveling. Technically. There’s still the thing with Legend, after all...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We’ve reached the end of this fic! It’s been a WILD ride—massive thanks to everyone who supported me along the way! You know who you are and I love you <3

Wild woke up… confused. 

Twilight was there, gently checking his forehead, but that wasn’t new. Probably. Wild remembered people being beside him for however long he’d drifted in that painful, feverish haze. Wind and Four were also there, and Warriors, the latter two sticking close to a head of curls recognizable as Hyrule’s. Wild wasn’t confused much by _that,_ though he could have sworn Four’s shadow moved independently. 

_ I might be hallucinating still… _

“What happened?” he managed, sitting up with Twilight’s help and rubbing his eyes one-handed. His fingers felt like barely mobile sausages, but he managed. 

_ “Somebody  _ decided it would be smart to explore an unfamiliar forest with potentially dangerous plants,” said Twilight, giving him a  _ look  _ that would have made Time proud. “Two somebodies, actually.”

Hyrule took that moment to groan, “Did I get  _ trampled?”  _ from across the room, reminding Wild who the other “somebody” was. The statement wasn’t far off from Wild’s status—everything  _ ached  _ in a way it hadn’t since the last time he tried to fight a Lynel with a stick. Ah, memories. 

“You’re lucky you got better this quick,” said Twilight reprovingly, before tugging Wild into a fierce hug. “You’re  _ also  _ lucky I’m happy you’re back, cub, or you’d be getting an earful.”

Wild accepted the brief embrace, silently relieved that he wouldn’t get a lecture this time. In his and Hyrule’s defense, it was the first time Legend had let either of them out of his sight while at the shop—they had been curious. Memory of the horrible pins-and-needles feeling and neverending headache set  _ that  _ curiosity to rest. 

(For now, anyway. Part of Wild wanted to try and get a piece of that plant to show Zelda, as she’d probably relish the chance to study its effects.)

Then something heavy hit his side and Wild nearly toppled over with an  _ oof,  _ recognizing Wind right before he could retaliate. 

“You’re back! Thank Hylia! You’ve missed a  _ lot,”  _ said Wind, his voice slightly muffled where his face was squished into Wild’s shoulder. Unfortunately, before Wild could ask exactly  _ what  _ he missed, Wind gasped. “Legend! I’ve gotta go tell him!”

He was gone in a flash, quicker than Wild could blink. Warriors frowned from across the room for some reason—muttering something like “isn’t he with Marin?” under his breath. Wild wasn’t sure. His lipreading skills were barely passable already, and he wasn’t exactly functioning at full capacity at the moment. 

“What’d I miss exactly?” asked Wild after a moment, confused. 

Twilight, for whatever reason, sighed heavily and ran a rough hand through his hair. “A  _ lot.  _ You don’t really want to know.”

Wild opened his mouth to say that he very much  _ did  _ want to know, had Twilight even  _ met  _ him, when Wind came dashing back inside with Legend close behind. Predictably, Legend went straight for Hyrule first, but Wild wasn’t insulted. If his headache had been totally gone, he’d even have made a joke about it. 

“Really, Twi, you can’t just leave me hanging,” he said instead. “What happened?”

For  _ some  _ reason, Twilight glanced at Legend briefly. “Tell you later, promise.”

Confusing, but Wild was too fatigued—and hungry—to question him further for the moment. He’d settle for a solid meal and a chance to stretch his legs before investigating. Unfortunately, he only got to the former—Warriors practically kidnapped him and Hyrule the instant he deemed them as “having eaten enough”. Wild would have protested more if the captain hadn’t looked so… manic. The resulting conversation was, unfortunately, equally manic. 

“So,” said Warriors, once his captives—er, friends—were safely bundled onto Legend’s back porch. Twilight and Four were there too, but Warriors was clearly the ringleader. “Turns out  _ somebody  _ interrupted the plan again, so you get to join in now-”

“How was I supposed to know what two people about to kiss looks like? I’ve never kissed anybody!”

“Wars, please, don’t get upset at Wind. You don’t know what it really looked like, you weren’t there.”

“Shush! I’m trying to get Wild and Hyrule caught up!”

“You’re  _ recruiting _ them-”

“Hey! I still haven’t gotten an apology!”

Hyrule slowly leaned over to Wild, keeping a curious eye on the bickering heroes. “Should… we do something? I’m a little confused.”

“I think they’ll burn themselves out sooner or later,” said Wild, shrugging. “Uh… probably.”

“They won’t,” said a voice from Four’s direction. Wild  _ would  _ have called it Four’s voice, but it certainly didn’t match, even though it only could have come from him. 

Then he looked down. 

“Yeah, hi,” said the red-eyed face in Four’s shadow. “Dark Link. Pleasure, I’m sure. If  _ you  _ call me Dink, I’ll take back that healing.”

Wild decided to just nod cordially while Hyrule openly gaped. Four didn’t seem perturbed, so this  _ Dark Link  _ character was probably not hostile. Probably. Granted, he’d been out of it for several days—maybe he woke up in some kind of parallel universe.

“Yeah, he’s kind of a long story,” said Four with a sigh. “He’s the reason you two are better, though.”

“Yeah, so don’t get passive-aggressive at  _ me,”  _ said Dark Link, shooting Four a dirty look. “Made it up, redeemed myself. You should start from the beginning.”

“Yes! Good idea,” Warriors cut in, abandoning the spat with Twilight and Wind. “we’re trying to get Legend to get his head on straight and realize that Ravio and Marin like him.”

“The shopkeeper and his mysterious houseguest? Okay,” said Wild slowly. “Makes sense, I guess, but why does he need your help?”

“It’s pretty much all of us at this point,” corrected Four. “Time included, but he’s spending the day out of the house right now. Left as soon as Dink here showed up-”

“Oh,  _ come _ on!”

“-for the sake of his sanity,” finished Four, as if Dark Link had said nothing at all. “It’s been a weird few days.”

“Why? Legend’s not stupid, it shouldn’t take  _ that _ long,” said Hyrule.

Someone coughed, probably Wind, and suddenly Wild couldn’t make eye contact with any of the other heroes. Dark Link snorted loudly. 

“He’s a bit blind in this case, trust me,” he said with an impressive eyeroll. “These guys worked on him for a few days and he didn’t notice anything.”

Wild blinked slowly. “Okay… so he needs a bit of a push…”

“Him and Ravio are literally married and he thinks it’s platonic,” said Twilight flatly. “He needs more than a  _ bit.” _

Wild took a deep breath. “Maybe he’s just in denial? Has either of them actually  _ told _ him?” 

“Yes.”

“Multiple times.”

“I love him like a brother, but he’s  _ so  _ dense!”

“I think we’ve all tried to flat-out tell him at least once,” said Warriors, running a hand over his face. “He hit  _ me  _ with a pillow, so I kept it to just the once.”

“And he… hasn’t noticed. At  _ all?”  _ said Wild weakly. The situation was so absurd he was longing for the delirium again. 

“Slightly,” conceded Warriors. “I think he got suspicious, at least, judging by something he asked me about earlier—I’ll tell you all  _ later,  _ Wind—but so far, no actual success. We’re trying.”

“It got so frustrating that I decided to step in,” said Dark Link in a bored manner. “But even  _ my  _ influence didn’t help!”

“Sorry, why is he here?” said Wild, thoroughly confused. “Was he  _ watching  _ us? And how come he looks like Time?”

“Because  _ Legend  _ and his obliviousness put a halt to my master plan, keep up,” said Dark Link, clearly annoyed. “I look like the Hero of Time because I’m his dark reflection—oh, that’s right, you don’t have one of those. Nevermind.”

“I got  _ stabbed  _ by someone like you,” said Hyrule, frowning. 

“Yeah, but not  _ me,”  _ said Dark Link.

“I have an outfit that looks like you,” Wild murmured, half to himself, but he didn’t get a chance to elaborate when Four made a face—Warriors seemed a little desperate to keep the conversation on track. 

“Okay, you’re officially up to speed,” he said, clasping his hands in a businesslike manner. “Got any ideas? Rule, you too, but Wild’s already dating someone, so…”

Hyrule put his hands up in surrender. “I’m staying on the sidelines, thanks. This is a lot.”

Wild suddenly felt the weight of everyone’s eyes on him and started sweating. “Er—I’m not totally sure how it happened…? I did a lot that  _ might _ have helped.”

“Such as?” Warriors prompted. 

“Well—ever fought a red Lynel to steal its arrows?” said Wild, remembering some of the most glowing praise he’d received after waking up. “That seemed to help with Sidon.”

Predictably, Twilight let out a heavy, exasperated sigh. 

“Red ones are weak!”

“They’re still  _ Lynels,  _ Wild-”

“I don’t think we’ll be using that method,” said Warriors hurriedly. “Anything else?”

Wild thought about it. “Well—I also ate some frogs for Zelda, but really, I don’t know how  _ anything  _ I did led to me being in a relationship. Two of them. It would be three if Beedle returned my letters, but he hasn’t spoken to me since I kept that rhino beetle-”

“Called it. Wind, go tell Sky he owes me twenty rupees,” said Warriors, running a hand down his face. “Wild’s just as bad as the rest of us!”

Wild knew he should have been more insulted, but Warriors had a point. 

“Guess we can just… improvise a little more?” said Four, the last few words trailing off slightly. Wild noted the sudden tense silence with alarm—even Dark Link didn’t say something, and he didn’t come off as the quiet type.

“We’ve got a while, right?” he said, testing the waters. “Is there a time limit?”

“We stopped traveling because you two were sick,” said Twilight. “Afterwards, the whole thing with Legend started-”

_ “That’s  _ why?” Dark Link yelped, his entire top half emerging from Four’s shadow. He melted right back down a moment later, leaving only a series of unintelligible grumbles behind. 

“He’s complaining,” said Four after a moment. He winced suddenly. “A lot. Guess his surveillance methods only went so far—he thought the thing with Legend was the  _ major  _ reason we stopped.”

“Right…” said Twilight eventually. “Anyway, you’re both okay now. We can keep going. Thing is-”

“That means leaving Ravio and Marin behind,” realized Hyrule, snapping his fingers. 

In lieu of words, Twilight only nodded. Wild could understand the contemplative silence—the Legend situation wasn’t deadly, but their quest threatened entire  _ eras.  _ Technically, they could—should—leave… but there was still a job left unfinished, and no hero liked a job left unfinished, no matter how small. The journal stored in Wild’s Slate was a testament to that. 

“We’ve got another day, tops,” said Four, after staring at nothing for a few seconds. “Maybe even just tonight. We can’t exactly tell Legend we need to stall for this… well, I mean-“

“That can be a last resort,” said Twilight. “Until then… I don’t know. Start packing?”

“I’ve put too much energy into this to  _ not  _ see it through,” said Warriors, his ears flicking slightly in annoyance. Wild didn’t know the captain was even  _ capable  _ of letting his ears show so much as an ounce of emotion—a testament to how frustrated Warriors had gotten. 

“There’s just not a lot we can actually do at this point,” said Twilight, raising his hands slightly in surrender. He’d seen the ear flick, too. “At this point, it might just be up to Ravio, Marin, and Legend. Outside help hasn’t been doing much.”

Warriors’ face was unreadable for a few seconds that felt like years. Then he sighed. “You have a point. You know what? It’s close to dinnertime, let’s just eat and brainstorm later.”

Wild perked up immediately and leapt to his feet to get to the kitchen, but the ground tilted away from him like an unstable raft and Twilight had to stop him from faceplanting. 

“Nope,  _ you’re  _ going to sit down and not overextend yourself,” he said sternly, keeping a gentle-yet-firm grip on Wild’s upper arm. “Same to you, ‘Rule. No crazy business until you’re totally better.”

Hyrule didn’t bother trying to resist, but Wild made sure to groan as dramatically as possible while Twilight steered him back inside—out of principle, really, since his entire body rebelled at the idea of being overly active. He couldn’t just capitulate to Twilight, though, hence the groaning. 

At least none of the Links actually needed to cook, since Ravio and Marin seemed able to handle themselves in a kitchen without any explosions, blood, or crimes against food (all of which had once occurred at the same time one disastrous night—Wild had learned not to let Legend and Warriors near the cooking pot at the same time, as they’d inevitably turn it into a competition). 

Still, confused as he remained, Wild felt the need to help in  _ some  _ way even if he couldn’t cook. He snagged Marin while Legend was distracted (Wind had gotten into some mildly-cursed rings—nothing bad, but only Legend knew how to make his skin  _ not  _ green) to ask how she thought the plan was going. 

“You’re all so sweet, really,” she said, worrying the sleeve of her too-large tunic (was it borrowed?) between her fingers as she spoke. “But—well—I love him, but Link’s clearly more than a little confused about everything.”

Wild could relate. 

“Wish I could help more, but apparently all of my experience is ‘too extreme’,” he said with a shrug, hoping to at least cheer her up. 

Marin snorted. “Yes, Twilight mentioned. I don’t have any more ideas, unfortunately…”

“If he’s confused, maybe just… I don’t know, say it outright one more time?” Wild suggested. “I know you’ve done it before, but we’re probably leaving in the morning.”

“I suppose being up-front  _ is _ the only thing left,” said Marin. “What is this, the… ah. Fifteenth time’s the charm?”

“Sorry, did you say  _ fifteen-” _

But before Wild could get clarification (a commodity he was starting to consider more valuable than ancient arrows) Four stuck his head into the room and announced dinner. He looked pale and worried, like someone who had been agonizing and overthinking over something for too long. Wild didn’t get the chance to ask if he was okay before the hustle and bustle of dinner began, but Four continued to glance at his shadow as he poked at his food, so Dark Link had something to do with it.

_ Come to think of it, why’d they even let him get close?  _ Wild wondered, idly spreading something called “hummus” on a cracker and making a mental note to get the recipe.  _ Nobody here is the type to make a deal with a dark force like that… not even for this situation. What did he promise? _

Whatever had happened, poor Four must have been pretty invested—he kept glancing over at Legend worriedly. 

Time focused entirely on his food, not sparing a glance at anyone else unless he asked for something to be passed down to him. He seemed to have checked out of the situation entirely, which Wild almost envied. 

Twilight ate as if everything was normal, but Wild caught him watching Legend with a careful eye more than once. He made eye contact with Wild once, shrugged helplessly, and went back to his food. 

Warriors, strangely, wasn’t glancing at Legend—he kept glancing at  _ Four,  _ which furthered Wild’s theory that Four was the topic of whatever Dark Link must have promised. Warriors’ food went relatively untouched as he stared at the table unseeingly, his lips moving in a silent battle plan. 

Wind, freshly un-cursed, seemed outwardly concerned with shoveling roast beef into his mouth and flicking the occasional pea at Legend—but Wild caught him giving Ravio (who hardly took his eyes off of Legend and looked like a kicked puppy) a consoling pat on the back at least once.

Sky, master at pretending to be unbothered, didn’t get caught glancing at anyone else by Wild. He  _ did  _ do the same thing for Marin that Wind was doing for Ravio, but subtly. Wild couldn’t imagine he’d gotten  _ that  _ invested, though he wouldn’t be surprised. 

(Hyrule was bothered too, but more invested in eating than making mysterious glances). 

Everyone at the table managed to say nothing and everything at the same time, except for Legend. Wild could almost  _ hear  _ the ticking clock. 

Wait, Legend actually  _ had  _ a ticking clock hanging on the opposite wall. Wild wasn’t hallucinating for once. 

Dinner, tense as it was, seemed to pass in a flash. Wild’s plate was empty before he knew it, people were starting to get up to wash dishes and collect glasses and stop Wind from throwing  _ more  _ food and it seemed no progress had been made-

Then Marin subtly glanced at Ravio, who nodded back. 

Then Legend was steered from the dining room.

And everyone else was left, silently making meaningful eye contact with each other while they remained frozen where they were.

Would it work this time?

Hyrule got up with his plate and went stock-still when Warriors shot him a Look, one that said  _ be quiet or so help me Hylia I’ll make you.  _ It was a Look that Wild had gotten a few times, so he stayed where he was and strained his ears. Absolutely no one in the dining room made even a pretense of not trying to eavesdrop—the only reason Wind got away with having his ear to the wall was that Twilight was not-so-subtly doing something similar. 

Wild could only make out the slightest hum of voices coming through from where Ravio and Marin were making their last-ditch effort. One was higher, one was lower, but he didn’t hear the middling pitch that was Legend’s voice. 

Seconds passed like honey dripping down a wall—slow, thick, and sticky, holding everyone in place. 

Would it work this time?

_ Would it? _

The hum stopped, and Wild could have sworn he heard the slight creaking of everyone’s joints when they leaned closer to listen (no hero had functional cartilage, it seemed) waiting for Legend’s response. No one could make out any words, but the tone should be clear. 

Another hum, this one different.  _ Legend. _

Hesitant, Wild could tell. Awkward. His heart sank as apprehension set in—what was being said? 

“That is IT!”

Everyone flinched at the sudden loud voice, having been listening for near-silent words. Wild picked up his glass to gulp down some water and hopefully calm his heart rate.

“I can’t believe I’m in love with such a dumbass!”

Marin’s voice, clear as a bell. Wild choked on his mouthful of water, prompting Time to distractedly clap him on the back. Hardly another second passed before Marin stormed back into the room, snatched up a leftover corn muffin, and stormed right back out. Wild didn’t know it was possible to eat something  _ angrily,  _ but Marin sure managed. 

“Marin, wait!” Legend skidded back into the room, taking in the frozen heroes with wide eyes. He sputtered incoherently for a moment, but no one rescued him—no one had words to say. “She—I—Ravio, stay there, gimme a second—uh-“

Ravio poked his head back into the room hesitantly, saw everyone staring, and promptly retreated. 

Legend took a deep, steadying breath. “They  _ meant  _ it? This  _ entire  _ time? Why didn’t anyone  _ tell _ me—where did-“

Wind pointed to the hallway Marin had disappeared into and Legend  _ also _ disappeared that way with Ravio in tow, looking like he was being chased by a horde of cuccos instead of getting his love life sorted. 

_ Same thing, sometimes,  _ Wild thought dizzily. 

_ THONK. _

Everyone jumped at the sudden noise, but it was only Warriors letting his head drop onto the table with a loud groan. 

_ “Finally,”  _ he said, his voice muffled. Four patted his shoulder consolingly, though the movement was robotic. 

“You can say that again!” Dark Link leapt straight from Four’s shadow onto the table, though he immediately slipped on a spare fork and tried to play it off by levitating. “HYLIA, that took FOREVER!”

His outburst broke the spell, and Four was the next to speak. His voice wavered when he stared down Dark Link, like the entire world depended on this conversation. “So. We let you help. It worked… probably. Your turn.”

“Hm? Oh, yeah,” said Dark Link. He raised his hand towards the ceiling and snapped his fingers, the sound echoing right through Wild’s mind. A portal not unlike the ones that had bounced them all from era to era opened in the air above Four, pulsing slightly. It flashed purple once, twice-

And dropped a  _ person  _ right into Four’s lap. A  _ person  _ who looked not unlike Four himself, actually, if with purple hair and red eyes and paler skin—wait. 

Wild stayed where he was during the resulting hullabaloo of—well, he wasn’t totally sure. Congratulations from Wind to Four, Time exasperatedly telling Dark Link to stop floating over the table and close the portal, of Twilight trying (and failing) to get Warriors to sit up and stop groaning about all his efforts, and Hyrule leaning over again to ask why Four was hugging what seemed to be another Dark and crying gently. Wild only had one answer for him-

“I don’t know,” he said helplessly. “But I think everyone’s happy.”

—

All Legend wanted to do was lie down and  _ not  _ think. Couldn’t he have that? For  _ five  _ minutes, could he just  _ not  _ be confused by everything?

But no. 

Instead, he had to face the possibility of  _ actually  _ being loved.

It was probably depressing that he could hardly imagine that, but there were other things to do than wallow in self-pity—like finding Marin, so he could… say something. Apologize? Legend wasn’t even totally sure who was “wrong”. Probably him… 

“Er—Mr. Hero? Can—I just—just wait a minute?”

Belatedly, Legend realized he’d been tugging Ravio along by one hand and looked back. What could be seen of Ravio’s face under the bunny hood was the same shade of red as Legend’s usual tunic—but even that disappeared a moment later as Ravio took both hands back and used them to tug the hood further down, clearly overwhelmed. 

“Do you  _ really  _ get it this time?” he said, almost too quietly to hear. “Don’t—don’t mess with me. Do you  _ really?” _

Legend opened his mouth and closed it again with a  _ click.  _ what could he say? Hindsight had perfect vision, as the saying went—even a cursory glance at the past week alone revealed more than Legend was comfortable realizing. He shook his head, refocusing on the situation at hand until something caught his eye. 

A band of gold glinted around Ravio’s finger where it was twisted up in the fabric of his hood.

_ He’s never taken that off, even though I said it was just for show. _

Suddenly Legend felt less  _ confused _ and more like a jerk. 

“Rav, I…” 

Legend stopped himself, words failing again—curse that old tendency for coming back  _ now.  _ He settled instead for gently taking hold of Ravio’s wrists, giving ample time for him to pull away, and lifting away the hood himself. Ravio didn’t make a move forwards—but he didn’t pull away, either. He looked  _ terrified,  _ like Legend was a monster and not… his husband.

_ I’m an idiot. Not even  _ Ravio  _ would do that for money. I would, but…  _

Legend swallowed nervously. “I… think I do. Get it, that is. You-“

But his voice promptly stopped working again, leaving the silence to stretch miles between them. Ravio carefully pulled his wrists from Legend’s in order to clasp their hands together, holding them gingerly, as if each finger were made of glass. “I meant it. Marin did too. If you need to choose one or the other, that’s  _ fine,  _ just… tell me you actually believe it this time. You don’t have to talk. Just… yes or no, Link.”

Legend gently took his hands back and and returned to his old way of coping with a failed voice—signing.  _ “Every time I get close to someone… they leave. They get hurt. They die.” _

Ravio watched his shaky fingers with an unreadable expression, his eyes wavering and hands clasped over his heart like a shield. 

_ “If I let myself believe… then I was opening you up to that.” _

The silence—normally Legend’s amicable companion—sat heavily in his lungs and his ears and on his chest, weighing down every soundless phrase and freezing the moment solid. 

_ “If I let myself believe, I was getting close to the possibility of losing you. And… no matter what I thought those feelings actually were… I never wanted that to happen.” _

Legend’s fingers flew like they hadn’t in years, despite the shakes that were starting to take over his limbs. Ravio’s eyes were hidden by his bangs—what was he thinking? Was he okay?

_ “I wanted…” _

Legend unconsciously stepped closer. The silence seemed to solidify in his mind, pressurizing itself down to razor-sharp diamonds constricting his throat. 

_ “I was afraid, but…” _

_ Just do it. Just say it. Just-! _

“I love you too,” he blurted, ignoring the voice crack which marred the last word. “I mean it. I—I should have made myself face it before now, but-“

Ravio finally looked up and  _ oh,  _ Legend  _ really  _ hadn’t appreciated how beautiful his eyes were until that moment. They glittered brighter than any diamond possibly could, warmer than any star despite the tears welling up in their corners. 

_ Beautiful.  _

He couldn’t see them anymore a moment later, but Legend could hardly complain when it meant Ravio’s lips were pressed against his own and there were two warm hands cradling his face and tangled in his hair. Was he on fire? Probably, but Legend didn’t care. That was the only way he could describe the sparks that went up from the sheer  _ joy  _ that was unmistakable in the way Ravio tugged him forward. 

Then the warmth was gone and he blearily refocused on a furiously blushing Ravio, who had jerked backwards as if burned. “I’m sorry! I should have asked or warned you or—something—that’s on me-“

But Legend reached out all on his own, gently turning Ravio’s face towards him with feather-light fingers. There was every chance to pull away, to say  _ no, not now, it’s too much…  _

But neither of them took that chance, and the world melted away soon after—or, not  _ away,  _ really. It melted  _ down,  _ condensed into the shape of Ravio wrapped up in his arms. 

It occurred to Legend, after either several years or less than a minute had passed, that he still had unfinished business. He pulled away reluctantly, almost giggling when Ravio tried to chase after him without even opening his eyes.  _ Giggling.  _ He’d lost it. 

“There’s still, um—still-“ 

_ Dammit, there goes my voice AGAIN.  _ Legend fought to keep his throat from closing up, but was only partially successful. 

“Hm? Oh Goddess, _Marin!”_ yelped Ravio, his face the picture of embarrassment—though he didn’t let go of Legend’s shoulders when he pulled back, which was endearing. “You need to go sort things out with her! She kind of _snapped,_ huh?”

Legend winced, recalling the foreboding eyelid twitch when he’d denied their words… again. Not that he hadn’t deserved it. “Yeah, good point. I’ll just…”

“Go… tell her what?” Ravio asked hesitantly. 

Legend gave it no more than a few seconds of thought. “Same… same thing I just told you.”

Ravio beamed. “Good! I like Marin, it’d be a shame if our team-up didn’t work-“

“Your _ what?” _

“Just go find her!”

Legend let it be. There were more important things beside Ravio’s sudden urge to push him from the hallway and whatever commotion had erupted back in the dining room. He could have sworn a Roc’s feather had snuck into his clothes somewhere—why else did he feel like floating through the house?

The floating feeling left somewhat, however, when dark muttering reached his ears as he stepped outside. There was no one in the garden—but the ladder used to get up onto his roof had been shifted to one side, and the muttering seemed to be coming from up there.

_ Why am I shaking? I shouldn’t be, this isn’t a fight. _

But someone had gotten hurt regardless.

Legend  _ wished  _ it was a problem he could solve with a sword and shield, or the right magic item, or by pulling a Hylia and going to ask one of his fellow heroes to handle things—but it wasn’t. He’d just have to be open. He’d done it with Ravio… but he had a different history with Ravio. 

So he took hold of the ladder and started climbing. It was easier to do something even  _ slightly  _ taxing than to try and get his thoughts in order.

The muttering stopped when Legend had made it almost all the way up. “Ravio? I’m not really in the mood.”

Legend steeled himself as he got to the top. “Close, but not quite.”

Marin whipped around in her seat, having commandeered the lawn chair which Time had formerly claimed, and openly gaped at him. Legend cautiously stepped closer—not as close as he’d like to be, but close enough to talk. 

“Did… you need something, then?” said Marin, crumpling the remains of what looked like a cupcake wrapper in one hand as she spoke. She didn’t seem to notice the motion. 

Legend swallowed, fighting back the urge to clam up. “Well, I… just talked to Ravio.”

_ And kissed him,  _ said his brain, unhelpfully. 

“...And?” Marin stood up hesitantly, taking a tiny step forward as she did. 

“And I… um-“

_ Dammit.  _

Marin seemed to understand, though, which was something she’d always been able to do. It was rare to find someone like that back during his adventuring days. She made him  _ want  _ to talk—but he’d never needed to. 

“You’re a lot of things, Link,” said Marin softly, realizing that he couldn’t continue. “But you’re not an idiot. You seem dead-set on believing that I don’t love you… why?”

Legend’s heart decided to use his ribcage as a drum set right about then. She just  _ said  _ it, like those three words weren’t the most loaded phrase for the situation—and even though he’d said them already in the past five minutes, they still threw Legend off. 

_ “I lost you once already,”  _ he began with shaky fingers.  _ “If I just… never get close… then I don’t have to lose anyone.” _

Marin’s gaze flickered in a way Legend couldn’t identify, which scared him more than the worst dungeon bosses he’d ever faced. 

“Link… listen.” She took a deep, steadying breath. “When I made my wish to come here, to find you… I knew there was a risk I wouldn’t be able to. Dream magic is a funny thing that way—and that  _ terrified  _ me.”

Marin had never fully explained what she did to come back. Legend had asked—but only once, as the memory clearly left a bad taste in her mouth. Now… 

“So I understand, Link. The risk of losing someone you care about can become too much  _ very  _ quickly,” said Marin softly. She reached out and gently laid her hands over his wrists, leaving him open to sign but still touching. “Don’t forget, I… I lost you too that day. But I’d rather have you with me for even just a  _ day  _ than never be beside you again.”

Legend’s hands shook too much to sign for what felt like hours, but Marin waited patiently.

_ “I’m still scared,”  _ he admitted, even though it stung to do so. 

“I know. So am I,” said Marin. “But I’m not going  _ anywhere.  _ Anyone and anything that gets in the way of that promise will regret it.”

There was steel under the sugar of her voice, and Legend knew better than to doubt her. 

_ Verily, it be the nature of dreams to end,  _ the Wind Fish had told him. 

But Marin was flesh and blood and determination in front of him, not a dream.

“I—“ Legend cleared his throat, dodging a voice crack. Still no point in speaking, it seemed.  _ “I’m going to be scared for a long time. But…”  _

If  _ signing  _ failed him now, Legend was going to scream. He’d do it. He deserved some nice, cathartic screaming—but right now, Marin needed an answer. 

_ “But I’d rather have you with me, too,”  _ he said.  _ “I can take the risk if it means… if it means I can love you.” _

For a moment, all was still. 

“You mean it?” Marin whispered, bringing one hand up to cover her rapidly-spreading smile. Legend  _ never _ wanted to see that smile fade. 

_ “I do.” _

“In that case… may I…?” Marin was already close enough to touch—when had she gotten there—so all she needed to do was reach out to cradle the side of Legend’s face. He was nodding even as he leaned in, blissfully letting all thoughts and need of words to fall away. 

_ Finally,  _ he didn’t need to try and speak.

_ Finally,  _ he knew what was going on. 

And he  _ was  _ still afraid, despite—or because of—the girl in his arms and the merchant downstairs, both of whom had certainty he envied. It was the type of fear that never left. Every hero felt it at some point, no matter how big or how small. But, then again…

Legend didn’t wield the Triforce of Courage for nothing. He’d spite Hylia again by using it to love instead of fight, and he would  _ not  _ lose. 

Marin pulled away first, a giddy far-off look in her eyes. “Oh, I’ve been  _ waiting  _ for that.”

That did it. Legend  _ giggled  _ like a little kid, even when he tried to stifle it behind one hand—too late. Marin’s eyes glittered with mirth and she joined in, the giddiness clearly overwhelming her. 

“S-stop—I’m—it’s not that  _ funny-“ _

_ Can my voice please WORK- _

“Of c-course not,” Marin managed, stifling further giggles. Legend would have been more upset if her laughter wasn’t so  _ cute.  _ “Not like we’ve been working towards you  _ finally  _ realizing everything for a  _ week  _ or anything. I’m both relieved and shocked.”

Legend sighed and abruptly stopped, fully absorbing what she’d said. “We?”

Unfortunately, his voice cracked, and he didn’t even blame Marin for laughing at that. At least she stifled it quickly—though from the way her ears turned red, it was because of her embarrassment more than anything else. 

“Well—you’re going to laugh at this,” she said awkwardly. 

He did not. 

—

For  _ once, _ all of the colors had stopped bickering. The silence would have been blissful if that was the end of it, but at least all their yelling was done in agreement for once. That single snap of Dark Link’s fingers had seemed as loud as a cannon in Four’s ears. The commotion his colors put up after Shadow dropped into his lap was louder. 

_ THANK Hylia- _

_ Dark wasn’t lying? Unbelievable- _

_ Guys, he doesn’t look so good- _

_ EVERYBODY SHUT UP! We’re missing people talking! _

“-should probably put him somewhere dimmer,” Dark Link was saying as he stalwartly refused to stop levitating. “I can handle indoor lights, but they  _ suck  _ if you’re used to the in-between. Which he is.”

Indeed, Shadow had buried his face in Four’s shoulder blindly and started shaking, a sure sign the light was bothering him. Four could only hope no one else noticed that he was crying over having Shadow back and seeing him like this.

“Right—uh-“ Four struggled to speak, as his colors were still rioting. Bless Wind for both congratulating and helping him—it was only by his guidance that Four was able to bundle the whining Shadow into his arms and race down the hall to the closet-turned-bedroom that Legend had been sleeping in. 

_ Should we apologize later, or just pretend we never got in Legend’s space? _

_ Red, now isn’t really the time to worry about how polite we are! Shadow’s back! _

_ And here I thought gruff old Blue didn’t care. Where’s our sword? _

_ Guys,  _ please.  _ We can’t be here for Shadow and shout inside Four’s head at the same time.  _

Four shook his head violently to clear his thoughts and closed the door behind him with one foot. He gingerly laid Shadow onto the futon and rushed to yank the curtains shut, nearly pulling the poor things right off the rod in his hurry. It was the only window, luckily. Four didn’t even care that he could hardly see a foot in front of his face. 

_ Good thing Legend’s so emo hardly any of the rooms in his house have sunlight.  _

_ Blue, PLEASE- _

Four ignored his colors and their storm of emotions, fighting back further tears of relief and fear as he went to kneel by the futon. “Shadow? It’s—it’s Link. Are you okay?”

_ OBVIOUSLY he’s not okay, what kind of question is that- _

_ BLUE, SHUT UP!  _ three voices cried in tandem, and Blue finally did as told.

Shadow made a weak groaning noise. The shuffling of fabric told Four that he’d finally uncurled from himself, but that was about all that made it through the blackness. 

Then-

“...nk?”

“I’m here,” Four reassured him, reaching out and finding Shadow’s shoulder. He would  _ not  _ start sobbing. “I’m here, it’s me. You’re okay.”

“How…?” Shadow’s voice scratched as it came out, grating like sandpaper—but it was the best thing Four had heard all day. “I was… the mirror—the mirror!”

He lurched up, breaking Four’s hold in the process. “I  _ shattered  _ it, how am I not—but I  _ was,  _ I was dead-“

“Not anymore,” Four managed.  _ I am  _ not  _ going to break down- _

Shadow stopped for a moment, breathing slowly. His hand found Four’s face in the darkness, and Four put his own hand over it, squeezing gently.  _ I’m here,  _ he tried to say, but it didn’t come out. 

“You’re warm,” said Shadow hesitantly. “You’re  _ real.” _

Next thing Four knew, he was toppling backwards with Shadow’s weight practically wrapped around his chest. He didn’t even care when he hit the floor, not with Shadow there, hugging him like the world was about to end and burying his face in Four’s shoulder. 

“I couldn’t  _ feel  _ anything where I was,” Shadow choked out, his voice muffled by Four’s tunic. 

_ If we break down…  _

_ Stay strong for him, yeah.  _

“You’re not there anymore, okay? You’re back. I’m not letting you go anywhere,” Four promised, fighting to keep his voice level. 

“What did you even  _ do?”  _ Shadow demanded, pulling away and leaning over Four—who didn’t actually mind that much. “Whatever magic pulled me out was  _ not  _ light magic.”

“Well… I kind of made a deal with someone else like you,” said Four, even though at least two of his colors were violently objecting to explaining  _ that  _ situation. “Dark Link, of the Hero of Time.”

“The who? Wait, no, I should be asking _why._ Why did you make a deal with a being like me for—well—me!” Shadow gently shook Four’s shoulders as much as he could while they were more or less pinned to the ground. “You know how I used to be! How I… _kind_ of still am, a little. That’s not safe, you idiot! Not worth it-“

“You’re worth it,” Four said hotly. It seemed he’d stunned Shadow, so he kept going. “This Dark isn’t so bad. He’s devious, and crafty, and he doesn’t understand regular Hylian emotions or inhibitions—but I wouldn’t call him outright  _ evil.  _ Even if he was, you’re worth it. I…”

_ Would now be the time for… I dunno, a love confession? _

_ Do we love him? _

Four had no idea, and neither did any of his colors.

_ We definitely like him a lot. Enough to make a deal with a dark force to bring him back,  _ said Vio, taking the logical route.  _ Enough to fight so he could live. Enough to hurt when he’s gone.  _

_ Doesn’t feel like love, though…  _ said Red slowly.  _ Do we even know what that feels like? _

Four  _ didn’t _ know—not the romantic kind, anyway. He knew he loved Dottie, and his grandfather, but he’d never felt the urge to  _ kiss _ anyone. 

“Your face looks  _ really  _ weird,” said Shadow, breaking the haze in Four’s head for a moment. “Wait—are you not all the same person again? Am I talking to Vio or something?”

“Yes and no,” Four managed, but his voice shook as he spoke. He didn’t need to see to know Shadow had started frowning. 

_ Don’t break down!  _ Blue panicked. 

“You asked if I’m okay, but don’t tell me  _ you _ are,” said Shadow. “Don’t be the ridiculous self-sacrificing hero, okay? That’s  _ my _ job now. What’s wrong?”

Four swallowed a lump the size of Hyrule Castle.

Wavered. 

And  _ broke.  _

“I missed y-you so  _ much,” _ he sobbed, finally letting the floodgates open. This time, it was Shadow who gathered  _ Four  _ into his arms and held on reassuringly—but it hardly mattered who was comforting who. They were both crying. “I kept s-seeing the mirror shatter over and over again and—and all I could think was that I  _ betrayed  _ you and you still—still-“

_ “Duh,”  _ said Shadow in between sniffles. “You’re the only person I could call my friend.”

_ Friend, huh?  _ said Green softly.  _ That sounds good for now, yeah? _

_ Something like that,  _ said three voices at once. 

It didn’t matter what they called it, really. All that mattered was having Shadow back. 

—

Warriors was  _ fine.  _ Seeing his plans come to fruition wasn’t nearly as satisfying as he’d hoped, but that was fine. Dark Link had dropped Four’s Shadow out of a portal right above the table and wasn’t  _ closing  _ the damn thing, but that was fine. He had no idea what Legend was saying to appease Ravio and Marin, which was  _ fine. _

“Wars, please. You’re being dramatic.”

“‘M  _ not,”  _ Warriors insisted, stubbornly refusing to lift his head from the table. “‘M  _ processing.” _

Twilight gave a heavy sigh and still refused to give up. “There’s still work to do, come on-“

“They’re talking, aren’t they?” Warriors pointed out.

_ “Dark Link _ work,” hissed Twilight—and as much as Warriors hated to stop being melodramatic, he was right. The deal was done. Legend had finally (hopefully) seen sense, Four had Shadow back. 

Warriors wouldn’t put it past Dark Link to start a fight right then and there.

“Close. The. Portal.”

“Alright,  _ alright,  _ keep your hat on,” Dark Link said at last, surprisingly calm in the face of an irritated Time. For someone who had admitted to being afraid of the old man, Dark Link was good at not showing it as he snapped his fingers to dispel the portal. “Don’t blame  _ me  _ for being overexcited when the Captain here can’t even lift his head.”

“Hey!” Warriors leapt to his feet, realizing too late he’d risen to Dark Link’s bait. 

_ “Now  _ he stands up,” Twilight muttered. 

Time, who was clearly ready to just leave the lot of them to their own devices again, chose to focus on Dark Link instead of any antics. “Was there anything else to your deal?”

Dark Link reclined in midair, thoughtfully rubbing his chin. “Hm… assuming Legend actually talks things out-“

“Unlikely,” said Twilight, which garnered several agreeing winces. 

“-well, I’ve already brought back the shadow of the Four Sword. That’s my end done,” said Dark Link. “In that case…”

The room went dead silent. Warriors had thought he knew what tension felt like after sitting through dinner, but that was  _ nothing  _ compared to what he felt while waiting for Dark Link to make a move. He knew what the others were thinking—should they move first, and risk Dark Link lashing out if he was friendly? Or should they wait, and risk him  _ not  _ being friendly?

No one moved. Warriors wasn’t sure if that was the right choice, but it was safer… for now. 

“Yes, deal’s over. You were gonna leave anyway,” said Dark Link flippantly. He dropped from midair and landed somewhat smoothly on the floor—standing right next to Warriors. “Been a nice alliance and all that, but my plans have been  _ woefully  _ neglected. No hard feelings.”

Warriors had at least two knives on him at all times. Unfortunately, neither were easily reached while the enemy was practically on top of him.  _ Why  _ had he already put his utensils in the sink, they were weapons in the right hands-

“If there’s no hard feelings, then why do you still want us to risk our lives for no reason?”

Dark Link stopped looming ominously over Warriors to blink at Wind, who faltered but kept speaking regardless. “Well—when you’re not making dangerous plans, you’re not so bad. What’s the point of making us keep going?”

“I spent a lot of  _ time  _ on this quest,” said Dark Link, crossing his arms petulantly. “Fabricating dungeons isn’t  _ cheap,  _ you know,  _ especially  _ when you have to make it actually survivable and not a death trap. Death traps are  _ boring. _ I hired a witch for this, and she haggled like you would not  _ believe-“ _

“So what if we only did that?” Wind offered. If everyone hadn’t been staring at him before, they sure would have been after  _ that.  _ “No crazy quest, no life-threatening journey, just the puzzles and stuff. You make sure none of us gets badly hurt, and we’ll complete your plan. That’s all you wanted, right?”

Dark Link appeared to be lost for words, which was a phenomenon Warriors appreciated. 

“I mean… I’d rather go through an interesting dungeon than who-knows-how-long of more travel and  _ then  _ the dungeon,” said Twilight thoughtfully. Hyrule looked like he wanted to say something about the slight against aimless traveling, but Time nudged his shoulder in warning before he could. 

“Not a bad idea, Sailor,” said Wild, grinning. “I mean, I have no idea what’s going on still, but that sounds like a plan.”

“Between that, traveling again, and just fighting it out right here… I like Wind’s plan better,” said Warriors. Sky echoed the sentiment a moment later. Even Time nodded—slowly, but he did. 

“Hmph. You’re all ridiculous, who doesn’t love a good hero’s journey?” said Dark Link, making a face.

“I don’t.”

“Is there someone who  _ does?” _

“They’re fun and all, but this one’s kinda long.”

Dark Link stared at them all open-mouthed.  _ “Seriously?  _ You’d rather skip to the end?”

Nods all around. 

“Of  _ course,  _ I should have foreseen this,” Dark Link grumbled. “My own light reflection settled down on a  _ ranch  _ and I didn’t consider that you lot might rather skip the quest. I suppose… it would be  _ easier…”  _

No one dared move, waiting for him to finish.

“Fine. Fine! Why not. Everything  _ else  _ has been driven so far off the beaten track it doesn’t even matter anymore,” said Dark Link, running a hand down his face in exasperation. “That, and I’d rather not fight all of you at once. You’re formidable.  _ Fine.” _

It was as if a string had been cut—all the tension immediately left the room in an instant. Even  _ Time  _ let his shoulders slump almost imperceptibly. Warriors let out a huff and slumped back in his chair, struck suddenly by the realization that it was nearly  _ over.  _ The quest that had taken so much time, blood, and uncertainty,  _ over. _

_ And all because Legend couldn’t recognize love if it ate one of his cursed rings.  _

“Hey, wait—how do we explain this to Legend?” said Warriors. His words instantly brought the tension in the room roaring back to life, if awkwardly.

Twilight winced. “Uh… gently?” 

Warriors had developed a kind of sixth sense for when something dangerous was approaching during the war. It went off like a fire alarm bell right after Twilight spoke, but he didn’t realize what it was until the back door creaked open and heavy footsteps made their way into the dining room.

_ “So,”  _ said Legend, smiling dangerously. “Which one of you had the bright idea to set me up in my own  _ house  _ behind my back?”

Wind wordlessly pointed at Warriors. 

_ And here I thought  _ Legend _ was the rat.  _

—

In the grand scheme of things, three months wasn’t a very long time. A quarter of a year wasn’t much in the face of the average life—to heroes, however, three months might as well have been three years. The same went for whichever poor soul got stuck  _ helping  _ heroes, too. Three months could mean an entire quest, a life-changing journey, the difference between life and world-destruction. 

Or, in some cases, it could simply be how long it took to organize a wedding with guests from across eras. As anticlimactic and, in retrospect, hilarious as his own legal wedding had been—Ravio didn’t envy Marin in the  _ slightest.  _

Three months since he’d finally gotten through to Link and Ravio was still in shock. He helped arrange the decorations and invitations and he was still in shock. He woke up with Link’s arm cinched around his waist almost every morning and was  _ still _ in shock. 

“Think I’ll _ever_ get used to it?” said Ravio to Sheerow, who had given up on his campaign to fall asleep in the flower arrangements and settled in Ravio’s abandoned scarf on the table. The little bird opened one blood-red eye and gave Ravio a look that probably meant no. “Figures.” 

“RAVIO!”

“Gah!” Ravio fumbled his next attempt to make a nice bow with his ribbon, groaning when the entire bouquet fell apart. “Is that the  _ only _ way you know how to make entrances, Wind?”

“It’s the only way to make entrances,  _ period,”  _ insisted Wind. His shadow nodded vigorously on the floor—Dark Link never did find a better person to hitch a ride with. “Listen, I know you’re busy, but we lost Warriors-“

“How did you lose someone wearing a dress tunic  _ that  _ sparkly?” 

“He’s sneaky! I’ve been looking  _ all day,”  _ said Wind, flopping into the seat beside Ravio. “I’ll finish these bouquets if you take up the search. I’m  _ done.” _

“Can you even do them?” said Ravio doubtfully. “They take a bit of time to master-“

“I’ll pay you fifty rupees.”

“Be right back.”

Warriors couldn’t be  _ that  _ hard to find, really. It was a bargain. A steal, even. Fifty rupees just to track down a rather noticeable captain? Ravio would be done in minutes, surely. 

He should have known a pirate wouldn’t give up money that easily. 

“Have you seen Warriors?” said Ravio, sticking his head in the kitchen. 

Wild had told stories about what his laser focus could do—slow time, obliterate monsters, and so on. He hadn’t included frosting a cake in that list of achievements, but he was certainly doing a good job ignoring the question. 

“I wouldn’t interrupt him,” said Twilight, whose original job had been Wild’s assistant—he seemed to have nothing to do by this point, as Wild was a bit… overbearing in the kitchen. “The frosting already went wrong once-“

“Shh!”

“-so he’s a little-“

_ “Shh!” _

“Focused.” Twilight seemed unfazed by Wild’s impressive death glare, which was a step up from Ravio’s sudden urge to run. “No, we haven’t seen Wars since this morning. He stole some cookies and disappeared.”

“He’s lucky those were the snack cookies and not the ones we’re actually serving,” muttered Wild as he intently added wildberries to the bowl of frosting he was stirring. Despite normally being a nice person, there was no doubt he’d have revenge at some point. “Yeah, haven’t seen him.”

Wisely, Ravio decided to abandon the kitchen and look elsewhere. 

“Have you seen Warriors?” said Ravio, checking on the living room. 

“Ah, Wind got you, did he?” Sky thoughtfully plucked at his harp, frowning when one string thrummed out of tune. He corrected it as he continued. “I last saw Warriors at the practice dinner, so I can’t really tell you. He seemed a little upset by something, but I didn’t get the chance to ask what…”

“I think it was something about his role in the wedding?” said Hyrule doubtfully. “Not that I really understand those. Why can’t they just give each other their items and call it a day?”

Hyrule’s era, it seemed, wasn’t much for wedding ceremonies—he’d mentioned a few times that couples who chose to be together chose items, like a prized earring or a magic hat, to exchange with their lover as a bond. Ravio and Link both considered it a good idea, but Marin had been so excited to have a proper ceremony that Link folded like tissue paper. 

(He  _ did _ include that particular tradition, though—and Ravio had to wonder if that would turn out to be a paradox one day, even as the magic bracelet he had for Link weighed heavily in his pocket). 

Since both Sky and Hyrule were busy, Ravio had to move on—but where to?

“Have you seen Warriors?” said Ravio, climbing up to the roof. 

“Can’t a man sit down for  _ two seconds  _ without being pestered for wedding advice?” 

Ah, he’d found Time—and in a sour mood, too. Ravio wavered for a moment on the ladder, debating whether or not to go all the way up, before sighing and just going for it. “This isn’t wedding advice, my good sir. Warriors? Fancy fellow with the scarf?”

“I know who you mean,” said Time with a sigh, running a hand down his face tiredly. It seemed he’d given up on peacefully enjoying the book in his lap. “I thought you were Legend coming up to panic at me again—and no, I haven’t seen Warriors recently. Last night he said something about still not knowing who Legend’s best man is, but I didn’t get a chance to tell him it’s Hyrule. If you find him, let him know?”

Ravio was starting to have…  _ suspicions _ as to why Warriors had disappeared off the face of the land, but he still hadn’t found the man in question, so he let Time be. 

“Mr. Captain Hero Sir!” Ravio hollered from the top of the attic stairs, having given up on asking people. 

“He’s not here,” said a voice from Ravio’s left. Four stuck his head out of the guest half of the attic, though he didn’t open the door far enough for Ravio to see inside.  _ Suspicious.  _

“Well, fifty rupees are on the line,” said Ravio, inching closer to the door. “He  _ is  _ needed, we can’t have guests not showing up when the ceremony’s in an—hour!”

The last word was caught up in Ravio’s lunge for the door. Four, unprepared for the sudden leap, couldn’t keep it closed—which  _ finally  _ revealed Ravio’s quarry. Probably. It was a little hard to tell who exactly was under the sad lump of blankets on one of the spare cots, but the scarf trailing from under it all was a dead giveaway. 

“He’s been having a crisis up here all day,” said Four with a sigh, seemingly giving up on keeping Ravio away. “I’ve been doing my best to make him feel better, but…”

“Go  _ away.” _

“Well, that.”

“Dare I ask?” said Ravio, looking to Four with confusion. 

“We got something out of him about some past relationship issues-”

“We?” said Ravio, thoroughly confused.

“Shadow’s here. But Wars isn’t really talking, just upset…” said Four. “But… I don’t know. It’s nothing to do with having feelings for anybody in this equation, we got that much.”

“Me, I still don’t get why he’s been down all day,” said Shadow, taking that moment to join the conversation from Four’s—well, shadow. “But aren’t we all entitled to a melodramatic breakdown once in a while?”

Ravio had to concede that point, but there was still the matter at hand. “The ceremony’s in an hour! What’s so hard about herding him downstairs and propping him in a chair or something?”

“I can  _ hear  _ you, you know.” Warriors’ face appeared from the blankets, irritated and tired-looking. 

“Then act like it, Mr. Captain,” said Ravio, wagging a finger at the blanket pile. He knew the nickname drove Warriors nuts, which would hopefully provide some motivation to leave the blankets. “What’s all this really about?”

Warriors went back under the blankets. “I’m not jealous. Four got that right.”

“Love to hear it.”

Ravio ignored Four’s side comments and stepped over to the pile of blankets, flopping into a seated position right next to it. “Alright, so what is it? Mr. Hero’s all talk, he wants you there no matter how much he jokes.”

“I  _ know.  _ Legend’s been a softie inside since I met him.”

“Then what’s wrong?”

The blankets were pulled away from the inside to reveal half of Warriors’ face, glaring at the stubborn Ravio. “You’re not gonna leave me alone, are you?”

“Nope!” lied Ravio, who knew he was very close to ditching the situation for the sake of timing. He wanted to see the actual ceremony, dammit. 

“If that’s the case, I leave him in your capable hands,” said Four, already halfway out the door as he spoke. 

“You haven’t changed,” muttered Warriors.

“What?”

“Er—nothing. You’ll find out one day.”

Cryptic words aside, it seemed Ravio was getting somewhere. Warriors having had time to stew probably helped with that. 

“I don’t like weddings much,” Warriors said eventually, the reluctance in his voice sharper than his blade. “I’m happy for Legend, of course. Relieved he finally got things straightened out and all.”

“Aren’t we all,” said Ravio—not the most meaningful addition, perhaps, but he wanted it to be clear he was listening. 

“You’ll know the whole story one day,” said Warriors tiredly. “Let’s just say weddings remind me of one of the worst parts of my quest. I told Four that, but it didn't help. I thought I could just muscle through for Legend’s sake, but… it hasn’t been this bad in years.”

Trauma. Ravio was used to the phenomenon, but he’d never pegged the flashy captain as the type to hide it… granted, Link wasn’t the only example of how it could present.

“What helps, then?”

“This… kind of.” The lump of blankets shifted, like Warriors was holding onto himself. “I’ll be okay.”

The “eventually” went unsaid, but Ravio knew it was there. He was utterly lost for solutions—Link would notice if one of his brothers wasn’t there, and Warriors clearly wasn’t okay. The clock was ticking down, too… 

“Link would understand, you know,” he said after thinking about it. “You’re hardly alone in this house. I can go let him know you’re not feeling well-”

“Have you  _ seen  _ Legend lately? He’s so nervous that anything else going wrong might make him explode,” said Warriors hotly. “I’m not adding any more burdens to today.”

Ravio sighed. He wasn’t equipped to help Warriors, and he wasn’t getting anywhere, but…  _ aha.  _ “I’ll be back, okay?”

“Huh?” Warriors’ face emerged once more, this time confused instead of visibly upset. Progress… maybe. “What for?”

“Wind owes me fifty rupees, of course,” said Ravio, standing with a wince as his fast-asleep foot protested. “And he knows you better. You know, I thought you two were brothers when I saw you first… by blood, that is. You were so close—still are.”

“You don’t need to bo-“

“I’m not bothering anyone,” said Ravio sternly. “If you don’t want to involve Mr. Hero, that’s okay, but you’re not going to get better sitting here in the dark. Wind, or someone else?”

Warriors remained silent for a long moment. “...Wind. If anyone can make me get up, it’s him.”

“Then I’ll do just that.” Ravio awkwardly patted the blankets where he assumed Warriors’ shoulder was and left. Wind had a knack for cheering people up—hopefully, it would work for Warriors. 

There was still a part of Ravio’s mind, however, that got stuck on a particular quirk of the captain’s. He frequently hinted at things that Ravio had never encountered as if he expected Ravio to have been there, always treating it as a verbal typo of sorts, and just now he’d been odd about Ravio’s future… 

_ “You’ll find out one day.” _

_ Sounds awfully cryptic, Captain…  _

Suspicion of cryptic behaviors would have to wait. For now, there was still the wedding to get to—and Ravio, having never been to a proper one, couldn’t  _ wait.  _

—

There was dancing, of course. Some of the best times in Legend’s life had involved dancing—how could he not add it to today, even if no one in the house knew the same dance as someone else? It was entertaining, at least, to watch the styles clash.

With the dancing came music, supplied by whichever member of his family could conceivably make it. Time reassured him that only the non-magical songs would be played, but Legend had his  _ suspicions _ when some encroaching stormclouds disappeared from the sky as the ceremony drew nearer.

(He’d ask for the song later).

Legend wasn’t much for forcing people to wear fancy clothes, but everyone did their best regardless… their  _ best  _ was a little makeshift at times, but he appreciated it. Wild and Warriors easily took best-dressed, the others simply looked nice, and Wind looked like he’d raided three separate castles. Pirate fashion, he claimed. Legend could barely call it  _ fashion.  _

Had it not been for Marin and Ravio’s presence, the food would have been the highlight of Legend’s day. Wild had been utterly relentless in tracking down the right recipes, which was a thoughtful move, but Legend  _ really  _ didn’t want to know how he’d gotten ahold of the rarer ingredients—surely Wild didn’t have any of those “shrines” in Lorule, right?

...Legend wouldn’t think about it, just like how he wasn’t going to think about the sheer volume of greenery Wild had also contributed for decorations. Nine hundred and ninety-nine was a big number, but  _ why  _ did he have that many flowers? 

Legend hadn’t asked for gifts, and the others respected that wish—but he received them in ways other than a box with a bow. He knew that the others were there for him, and that was a gift. He knew there was nothing that would stop Marin and Ravio from loving him, and that was a gift. He knew his adventuring days were finally over and done with, and that was a gift. 

And when Sun, there both as Sky’s plus one and to personally bless the proceedings, finally wrapped up her speech about unity and devotion—Legend knew without a doubt that he was  _ loved.  _ There was no denying it even if he still wanted to. Not even  _ Legend  _ could brush off the way Marin excitedly swung him around in an unexpected dip when finally allowed to go in for a kiss. 

His grouchy reputation was utterly shattered by that point, of course. But Legend didn’t need it anymore—not when there were people by his side who loved him as much as he did them.  _ No more fear, no more denial.  _

Years later, that knowledge would still hit him like a rock to the face—but it was love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What’s that? This is a series now? 0.0
> 
> I’m surprised too. Don’t expect the spinoff to this anytime soon, but it’s definitely coming! Until then, lovely readers


End file.
